Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light
by Desslock3
Summary: Bonnie's life as a middle class suburbanite who volunteers at a local homeless shelter is a far cry from her life back in Middleton, and that suits her fine. But when one Ronald Stoppable shows up at the homeless shelter her life gets a bit more complicated.
1. Chapter 1

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

AN: Just an idea I had for taking the premise of Ron's Dinner and flipping it so that Bonnie is the one that comes to rescue of a down and out Ron. Let me know what you guys think.

I.

Bonnie finished putting concealer over the scar that ran down the left side of her face before donning her running out fit and finally placing a set of headphones over her ears. After switching on the local radio station, and a few stretches, she began a light jog that eventually led her to the local park a couple of miles from her home. The morning air was slightly cool, it was early fall after all, but not so cold as to be uncomfortable. As Bonnie continued to jog she passed a small bridge and could see the first signs of activity as people began to emerge from the local Obamaville, or as more historically literate people referred to it as Hooverville.

For the most part this homeless settlement was tolerated by the locals since it was largely self-policing and there were very few criminal acts from its members. Additionally, it made it a lot easier for the local authorities to deal with homeless people when they were grouped together instead of spread out all over. Which reminded Bonnie that she was scheduled to volunteer at the local homeless shelter the following evening.

Continuing her jog Bonnie's ears became attuned to a news segment that the radio station was broadcasting. The news broadcaster was commenting on how this was the tenth anniversary of the breakup of the original team Possible caused by the disappearance of Ron Stoppable. Now ten years later no one still had any clue as to the where abouts of the man despite the best efforts of people such as Kim, Wade, and Global Justice to find him. Although there were those who cast doubt on to Kim Possible and her actions after the man's disappearance.

Nearing the end of her run Bonnie entered a nice middle class neighborhood of homes that wasn't to far from the center of town, but far enough away to be considered the suburbs. Finishing her run Bonnie switched off her radio and spent several minutes doing some cool down stretches in the front yard of her house. As she was finishing up she was greeted by a middle aged man.

"Good morning Bonnie." The man said plainly but with a smile.

"Morning Frank. How's Traci and the kids?" Bonnie responded.

"The usual. Not enough of this, to much of that, seeking approval of the world, you know the usual first world problems."

Bonnie chuckled, "Yeah I know what you mean."

"Well back to the grind for me then. Have a good one."

Bonnie returned his wave with a smile. Frank was a good man with a decent family. In a lot of ways it was a pretty all American family, middle class, doing well but hoping to do better, worried about appearances and not always appreciating what they had.

"Not unlike your teenage years." Bonnie muttered to herself.

Shaking those thoughts from her head Bonnie made her way inside of her single level house. The house was a four bed room and was really more than she needed since she was living alone but she loved it just the same and had no desire to change her residence. After shutting the door the brunette made her way to the master bedroom to get cleaned up before going to work. Bonnie enjoyed a hot shower after going for her morning run, almost as much as she enjoyed a cup of coffee during her commute to work.

Throwing on a pair of sweats Bonnie went to the kitchen for breakfast which consisted of a banana, a hard boiled egg, and a steaming cup of coffee with a healthy splash of whole fat milk. Having finished her breakfast Bonnie grabbed her coffee mug and managed to take a couple of sips of it before she finished her commute to the room on the other side of the house that served as her home office. Bonnie enjoyed owning her own business, public relations, and that it allowed her to work on her own terms. Whether that be working whenever she wanted to from comfort of her own home or dressing up and going out in public to flash a smile and press the flesh. It also allowed her plenty of time to volunteer.

II.

"Ahhh!" Bonnie cried out as she bolted upright in her bed as her bad dream receded from her consciousness. She hated when she had those kind of dreams. She knew from experience that she would not be able to quiet her mind enough to be able to go back to sleep which resulted in a ruined of her night for her.

"Might as well go to work then." Bonnie muttered as she trudged in to the kitchen to brew up some coffee. A short time later, with fresh cup of coffee in hand, Bonnie entered her home office and got to work on the project she had been working on for the past few days.

As a volunteer at the local homeless shelter she did the usual work of helping to set up cots for the indigent to use for the night, as well as help to prepare and serve meals. But it was her talents as a public relations rep that really helped the shelter. More than anyone Bonnie was able to craft the message about how well the shelter served the community by how well it served the local homeless. This in turn often resulted in grants from various governmental as well as non-governmental organizations that kept the shelter running.

After a few hours Bonnie saved her work and stepped on to the back porch of her house in order to watch the sun rise. Bonnie had always been a morning person so she always enjoyed the morning, although she would admit that lately she had not been enjoying watching the sunrise as much as she used to. Even though the sight of the world slowly lighting up as the sun ascended in to the sky and the quite of the early morning did much to sooth her soul, Bonnie had to admit that something was missing, and she knew what it was.

That something was having someone to share the moment with.

III.

Looking at her watch Bonnie realized that even though she had lost half the afternoon due the nap she had taken to make up for her lack of sleep, she still had enough time to get in a brisk walk before she had to leave for her shift at the homeless shelter for the night. After a while she noticed that she had made her way to the new city park that sat at the edge of suburbia and the land that was part of a new housing development. Though the occasional lamp post lit the ground beneath her she soon realized that she was passing by what many people considered the worst part of the park, namely it's collection of homeless people.

While some people would avoid that area at all cost due to the perception that the inhabitants were at best criminals, and at worst actually dangerous mental cases, Bonnie did not carry that fear. For one thing, she knew how to handle a situation that called for self-defense, secondly, after her time at the homeless shelter she knew that most homeless people were not as bad as they were often made out to be, and finally, Bonnie just couldn't find it in her heart to look down on people who were already down on their luck.

With it being late fall the local authorities had come through the camp and had either arrested any one hiding from a warrant, or had provided assistance for those who wanted it. Those who were left, the ones that didn't want to be helped, only numbered about a third of the camp's population. This fact meant that the shelter would likely be busy tonight.

IV.

Bonnie stepped through the door of the Better Days shelter and was making her way towards the staff closet to hang her coat when she ran in to another of the volunteers.

"Hi Bonnie." Laura said with a wave as she greeted the brunette.

"Hi Laura." Bonnie replied with a smile towards the older woman. Laura was one of those whom nature had decided to let age gracefully and who despite her silver hair still had a figure and energy of a woman half her age.

"Got our new PR propaganda ready?"

"Propaganda? Who do you think I work for? Pravda? Everything in my little packet here is truthful." Bonnie said with a chuckle.

"If you say so dearie."

"Laura, no picking on our PR goddess. Unless you want us ask you to pose in a bikini again during our next car wash fund raiser." A male voice interrupted the two women.

"Why Clarence, what in the world would make you think that I would ever do something like that?" Laura asked in feign innocence. Clarence simply looked at the woman, who was at least twenty years junior to the man, and chuckled.

"Because as I recall we had to ask you to stop being so friendly with the male customers last time." Clarence said as he added air quotes when he said friendly.

"Some people just don't know how to enjoy good company is all." The attractive older woman said with a chuckle, "But I did get us a lot of business."

"Can't argue with that." Clarence said as he joined in with his own chuckle. "Still we at Better Days shelter are happy for all the PR work you do for us Bonnie."

"It's no big deal. Besides, it's nice to sometimes watch snooty people have their preconceptions about this place turned around." Bonnie said with a smile.

V.

Later that evening, long after the sun had gone down and most people had sought shelter from the approaching cold, Bonnie was dragging a bag of trash out to the dumpster behind the homeless shelter. She had just deposited the bag in to the receptacle when she was set upon by a couple of vagrants demanding money from her.

"If you want help then you can stay at the shelter for the night and sign up for help." Bonnie said as she indicated towards the building behind her.

"I don't want some stupid cot and watery soup for the night." The smaller, but apparently leader, of the two men said.

"Well I won't give you money." Bonnie said flatly as she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Your mistake." The leader said as the larger of the two men reached out and grabbed Bonnie by the arms and turned her around so that her back was towards him.

Bonnie frowned at the turn of events as she demanded to be let go.

"Not till we get what we want." The leader said as he continued to approach the woman.

"Fine, I tried to help you, but you've had this coming." Bonnie said.

Before either man could react Bonnie kicked out with her leg and made contact with the smaller man's crotch. The sudden and unexpectedly painful blow sent the man falling to his knees. As Bonnie brought her leg back from the kick she slammed it down on to the foot of the man behind her. Like his companion the larger man was surprised by the sudden violence against him and loosened his grip on Bonnie allowing the brunette to slip out of his grip and to put some distance between them.

"You'll pay for that." The smaller man said in his recently gained falsetto voice as he attempted to stand back up. "Lenny get her."

"But you said we wouldn't hurt her." The larger man apparently named Lenny said.

"I don't care get…." The rest of the man's sentence was cut off as Bonnie applied the business end of a taser against his skin and let loose with 50,000 volts. The electricity did its job and the small man crumpled to the ground as he let out a pathetic moan. Bonnie then turned to the larger man and pointed her taser at him. The taser she carried only had enough juice for one use before needing to be recharged, but she was hoping she could bluff the larger man anyways.

"Unless you want that happen to you too, then I suggest you get your friend there and both of you beat it before I call the cops." Lenny simply looked at the brunette whom they had assumed would be an easy mark and wisely decided that desecration was the better part of valor and grabbed a hold of his friend and began to drag him away as quickly as possible.

VI.

Two days later Bonnie was shaking the rain from her umbrella as she walked in to the Better Days homeless shelter when she was meet by her boss Clarence.

"Hi Bonnie, it looks like the weather is getting worse out there."

"Hey Clarence. The weather man said this light rain will probably be with us all night."

"Yeah, rain is bad enough, but the cold front that brought it here has temperatures dropping so I'm sure we are going to see an influx of customers tonight."

"More than likely." Bonnie agreed.

"Oh and Bonnie, can I see you in my office please?"

"Sure, I'll be there right after I hang up my coat."

After depositing her coat and umbrella in the staff closet, Bonnie made her way to the office of the man who ran the shelter. Even in his early seventies Clarence seemed to be a man of more energy and compassion than some people one third of his age. Between people like him, and even someone like Laura, Bonnie enjoyed the positive vibes that a place like Better Days always seemed to have.

"You wanted to see me Clarence?" Bonnie asked as she gently rapped on his open door.

"Yes I did. Bonnie I wanted to talk to you about an incident from a couple of nights ago."

Bonnie frowned as she knew where this conversation was going.

"I know you can take care of yourself, but you really should have told me when you were attacked."

"I would call it more of an attempted mugging, a poor attempt too."

"Still those are things that I should know about. I can contact the police and ask them to increase their presence around here to keep everyone safe."

"That's a bad idea Clarence. We both know that some of the people that come to this shelter have had bad experiences with the police in the past. Having more police presence here will only server to deter them from seeking our help."

"Yes that is a possibility. But so is the possibility that if word spreads that this is not a safe place for people then they won't come here seeking our help."

"Then we can just go out on the street and help spread the word that this is still a safe place." Bonnie countered.

Clarence frowned at Bonnie's answer. Yes she wasn't wrong, but that wasn't the point he was trying to make.

"Look Bonnie, you work in PR, so you of all people should know that perception is reality. And if the perception is that Better Days is becoming full of people who are dangerous, well then that tends to not only scare off people who actually need our help, but those willing to help fund our work too.

"Bonnie, I know you are a big girl who can take care of herself. But I need you to follow the rules and to report whenever there is an incident at Better Days. Yes it's a bunch of CYA crap, but that's just the way the world works. So can I get you to agree that the next time there is an incident here you will report it instead of handling it yourself?"

Bonnie sat there stewing for a moment before she finally answered, "Fine, I'll make sure to narc on the homeless."

Clarence suppressed a frown from crossing his face in response to Bonnie's snark. She had done a lot of good work for Better Days and she was still young and passionate about what she did, the last thing he wanted to do was to crush that.

"Ok then, thank you Bonnie."

VII.

Later that day the large multipurpose room of the Better Days shelter was quickly filling up with people seeking shelter from the weather outside. Often homeless people were use to having their own space and doing things their own way, so on nights that the shelter was full there was usually one or two incidents between people. With this in mind Bonnie began to make her rounds among the various denizens checking up on them and to hopefully defuse any situations before they became an issue.

As luck would have it Bonnie found herself at the right place at the right time just as an argument was breaking out between two men. Bonnie approached the two and attempted to intercede.

"Excuse me, is there a problem?" The brunette asked.

"No, no problem here." A man with dark yet thinning hair answered.

"Are you sure? Because if there is and we can't work it out then you will be asked to leave."

"Yeah I'm sure. The problem will be fixed just as soon as this guy gives me his stuff." The dark haired man said as he shot a threatening look towards the blond haired man that stood only a few feet away.

"Excuse me? Did you say his stuff?"

The dark haired man wasn't quite able to suppress the look of surprise on his face as he realized what he had just said.

"My stuff. He took my stuff, and I want it back."

Bonnie turned towards the other man who stood there with a downcast look on his face while he held a small bag in his hands.

"Is this true?" She asked.

The blond headed man simply shook his head no.

"He's lying." The dark haired man said.

"Word against word." Bonnie countered, "Now if you wish to make a formal complaint against this individual we can take you to the main office and you can file one."

"I'm not going to waste my time with paper work. He can just give me what's mine." He said as he took a step towards the blond haired man.

"Oh no you don't." Bonnie immediately stepped between them and put her hands up, "You need to step back right now." She said sternly.

"Yeah like I'm going to let some suburban soccer mom tell me what to do." With that the dark haired man shoved Bonnie aside and reached for the small bag that the blond had been holding the whole time.

With what Bonnie thought was lightening quick reflexes the blond hair man shifted the bag behind his back with his left hand as his right hand shot out making contact with the other's man face sending him crashing to the floor in an unmoving heap.

As Bonnie began to pull herself off the floor she noticed that the blond haired man had offered his hand to help her up. Accepting the offered hand Bonnie couldn't help but to feel as though there something familiar about the man. But before she could ponder on that fact any more her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Laura's voice.

"Oh my goodness, Bonnie are you all right? He didn't hurt you did he?" Laura asked as she shot an accusing glance at the blond man that was beginning to slowly back away.

Bonnie could see the look of fear that began to fill the blond man's face at the accusation and knew that she needed to act quickly before the situation got worse.

"No Laura I'm fine. And he didn't do anything but help me." Bonnie then turned towards the man and smiled, "Thank you for helping me."

This seemed to calm the situation as he stopped backing away and just stood there while still holding on to the same small bag that had started the whole episode.

VIII.

Half an hour later, Bonnie sat in Clarence's office as she dutifully finished explaining the incident to the man.

"Thank you Bonnie. I'm glad to hear that you are alright." Clarence then paused as he considered what to do.

"Clarence, I know what you're thinking. You're wondering what to do with them."

The older man nodded his head, "I am leaning towards just tossing them both out."

"Ok, but before you do that why don't you talk to them, maybe get a better feel for if that is in fact what you want to do."

"Hmm, well that does seem the fair thing to do, especially since you did mention that only one of them was the instigator and the other one helped you."

The two left Clarence's office and approached the two men who had been involved in the altercation. One man looking annoyed while the other had forlorn look about him.

"What are your names?" Clarence asked firmly.

The first one to speak was the dark haired, both on his head as well as his face, individual with light blue eyes. The pigmentation of his face matched that of his scalp indicating the balding issue he was suffering from was not new. He seemed to still have some self-pride as he stood straight and held his head high. "Dwayne."

Clarence nodded in acknowledgement before turning his attention towards the other man.

Bonnie noted that he had long, unkempt, blond hair with only a small amount of equally blond facial hair that didn't entirely hide a scar on his left cheek. He seemed far more subdued and kept his head down which caused his long hair to fall forward and obscure his eyes. In fact the man's whole body seemed to sort of slouch as if trying to avoid drawing attention to himself. This sight triggered something in the back of Bonnie's mind but she couldn't quite pin down just what that feeling was.

When the man spoke his voice was meek as if he was trying to avoid any sort of confrontation. But it was when he mentioned his name that the feeling that had been bouncing round inside of Bonnie's mind like some sort of specter finally manifested itself in to realization.

"My name is Ron."


	2. Chapter 2

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 2

I.

It was only when the blond haired man had spoken his name did things click in to place in Bonnie's mind. But was he really Ron Stoppable? That wasn't possible was it? She had just heard on the radio the other day that Ron Stoppable had been missing for ten years. She found it hard to believe that this man and Ron Stoppable were one in the same. Surely there must be hundreds, maybe thousands of men named Ron.

Bonnie's attention was snapped back to the here and now by Clarence's next statement.

"I've decided that both you men will not be allowed to stay with us at Better Days shelter tonight.

"But he didn't instigate any of this. In fact he helped me." Bonnie protested as she pointed towards the man who had identified himself as Ron.

"Be that as it may, I can't allow two people who have an obvious animosity between them to remain here and possibly endanger others. Bonnie, I'm afraid my decision stands."

Bonnie knew that a decision like this wasn't something that Clarence enjoyed doing or took lightly. He did have to consider the welfare and safety of the other people in the shelter tonight. Still as she watched the two men being lead away Bonnie knew that she didn't have to like the answer.

"Bonnie, are you ok?"

"What was that?" Bonnie asked as she became aware that Laura had asked her a question.

"I asked if you are ok? You keep staring at the blond guy. He didn't threaten you did he?"

"No nothing like that." Bonnie said slightly sheepishly at having been caught staring. "It's just that he looks familiar, someone I used to know."

"Romantically?" Laura asked, ever the romantic at heart.

Bonnie actually chuckled at that thought. "No, if he is who I think he is, well I used to be a real bitch to him. He didn't deserve it, but hey we do stupid things as teens."

"So you're trying to sooth your conscience then?"

II.

The two men were escorted out of the front door of the Better Days shelter and had only taken a few steps before the Dwayne turned to confront Ron.

"Thanks a lot loser. All you had to do was role over and give me you stuff and we both could have had a warm place to sleep tonight." He then took a threatening step towards the blond, "But now we're both out in the cold thanks to you, and I'm not happy."

Bonnie had followed the two men to the front door and had been watching what was going on and decided to intervene.

"Hey, knock it off you jerk." Bonnie said as she stormed over towards the men.

"Oh look it's the soccer mom again." Dwayne said dismissively, "I already showed you how I handle women who get in to my business. You should just back off."

"Don't get involved." Ron said meekly.

"I am involved, and I can handle creeps like you." Bonnie retorted.

"Oh I'm shaking in my boots. What are you going to do? Have this guy sucker punch me again?"

With out a word or warning Bonnie grabbed the man's hand and put him in a simple wrist lock that ensured he would comply with any commands he was given.

"I don't like your attitude, I don't like you threatening people, I'm not a soccer mom but I can wipe the floor with you. And if you still want to try to cause us any grief." Bonnie used her free hand to pull her taser out and placed the prongs of it against the man's neck.

"No don't do that to him."

Bonnie looked up at Ron in confusion.

"You don't need to hurt him, just let him ok. Please, no violence."

Bonnie looked at Ron, then back down at Dwayne then back to Ron. His face carried a concerned look on it, as if he truly was afraid of violence breaking out again. Either way he still needed help, and Bonnie decided that she would provide it.

"Ok listen up Dwayne, I'm going to let you go and I want to see you beat it, otherwise I might just decide to use this." Bonnie said as she pushed the taser just a little bit harder in to the man's neck.

"Fine, just let me go you crazy bitch."

Bonnie turned the man away from Ron and released the wrist lock before giving him a slight shove to send him on his way. Bonnie kept her eyes on the retreating form of Dwayne for a couple of minutes to make sure he wasn't about to try to cause any more trouble. Finally convinced that the issue was solved, Bonnie turned to take care of the next issue.

But Ron was gone.

III.

"Still no luck huh?" Laura asked as she sat down with a couple of cups of coffee.

"No and it's starting to bother me." Bonnie conceded as she accepted one of the coffees. Taking a sip of the drink Bonnie made a face.

"Ugh, I think I got yours." Bonnie said as she pushed the cup towards Laura.

"Sorry about that." Laura said as they swapped cups, "I like my coffee like I like my men, hot, strong, and black."

"Is that why we used to date?" Clarence asked.

"Dating, I thought the kids called it hook ups these days."

"Gah! Will you two knock it off? You're as old as my parents." Bonnie said through a bit of laughter.

"See, feels good doesn't it?"

"What feels good?"

"When a man makes you laugh." Laura explained.

"Yes laughing does feel good. But what makes you think I need a man for that?"

"Oh coming out of the closet now are we?" Laura teased.

"Gah, why do I hang out with you?" Bonnie complained as she laid her head on the table.

"Still, you looked like you needed a laugh. You've been looking for this Ron guy ever since he got tossed out of here."

"Laura's right Bonnie, you've really taken a personal interest in that poor soul." Clarence chimed in.

"Yeah I know. But I just need to know if he really is the guy I knew from high school."

"Why do you care about him so much?" Clarence asked, "All teasing by Laura aside, you didn't have a thing for this guy did you?"

Bonnie sighed as a flash of memories from her former high school days flooded back in to her mind.

"No, it's nothing like that. But back in high school I was a real stuck up bitch and I treated him like dirt even though he never deserved it."

"So this is about fixing mistakes of your past then?"

The former cheerleader placed her chin in her hand and thought about that for a moment.

"I don't know if I can really fix what I did in the past. But I know this much, some one did right by me once and I intend to try to do right by him now."

IV.

A couple of days later, with still no luck in finding Ron, Bonnie decided that she needed to take a more direct approach. With umbrella in hand she braved the light rain that was falling and made her way to the small homeless settlement on the edge of the park. Bonnie had to admit that a woman going to a homeless encampment at night was not the smartest thing to do, but then again Bonnie knew that she had been a fool for lesser things in the past. Still her conscience was what gave her the courage to take the risk. Still she was smart enough to pack a few items that might come in handy.

Fifteen minutes later Bonnie found herself standing in front of a small sign which read "Obamaville, population: depends on the stock market".

Well at least the people here had a sense of humor, even if it was a bit dark.

After speaking to a few of the inhabitants, of which she was able to bribe with a few dollars for information, Bonnie soon found that no one had seen anyone matching Ron's description in the camp. So much for the easy search, she thought. If she was to try and find Ron then she would need to head towards town and check out the usual places that the homeless liked to hang out at.

V.

Two hours later Bonnie was tired and hunger and was ready to give up searching for the night when a flicker of movement in the back of an ally caught her attention. Showing more courage than common sense, she began to walk down the darkened ally way.

"Leave me alone."

The sound of a man's voice momentarily startled Bonnie, but she quickly recovered and continued deeper in to the ally.

"Ronald?" Bonnie called out.

"I said go away."

"I want to help you."

"I want to be left alone." The voice said again.

"Sorry, but I won't allow that."

"I said go away." The voice said again, louder, closer this time.

It was only when he came in to the light and Bonnie got a good look at his face did she recognize him. She had a hard time believing it at first, but the evidence was right there in front of her eyes. Still she would ask just to be sure.

"Ron Stoppable? Is that really you?" She asked.

Ron simply nodded his head.

"What are you doing here? Why are you living here like this?"

"That's none of your business." Ron answered coldly, "I don't need your grief."

"Sorry, I wasn't trying to give you any grief." Bonnie answered diplomatically.

"That's a first."

Bonnie looked at the man in surprise. Yes he did look like he hadn't had a good shower or meal for that matter in a couple of weeks, but that wasn't what surprised her the most. Back in high school Ron always had a happy go lucky look about him no matter what was happening. But now that was completely gone from his face and in its place was the look of sadness and weariness of someone who had more than their fair share of burdens. Apparently the years since high school had not been kind to him.

"Ronald, I'm not trying to belittle you. I want to help you. After you were thrown out of the shelter I've been looking for you."

"You shouldn't have wasted your time." Ron said dejectedly.

"It wasn't a waste of my time, you need help. You deserve help."

Ron stood there silently for a moment as he considered her words.

"Sorry, I've just come to not expect the best of people any more."

Bonnie simply nodded her head in acknowledgement if not complete understanding; while a small part of her further wondered just what sort of life Ron had been living to think that way.

The sound of something that sounded like poles and tarps falling to the ground grabbed the attention of the two, but especially Ron's. Rushing further in to the ally and behind a dumpster Ron saw that the small improvised shelter he had built for the night had collapsed.

"No, no, no. I don't need this." Ron swore as he attempted to reconstruct her shelter.

Bonnie walked up to the scene and saw what had befallen Ron. As the man was frantically trying to rebuild his shelter she realized that the materials Ron had to work with were inadequate to build a suitable shelter for the night and that she needed to do something. Quickly she realized that now was her chance to help him.

"Ron. You need a place to stay for tonight. I'll help take you to a shelter."

"I don't need your charity."

"Charity, help, making up for wrongs from high school. I don't care what you call it, but I am going to help you tonight." Bonnie said firmly. She then walked up to the man and held her umbrella over him as she added in a softer tone.

"Please, let me help you."

Ron looked up at Bonnie as if he couldn't believe what she was saying. First she stood up for him at the shelter, now she had taken the time to actually look for him and had offered to help him. This was not the Bonnie that he knew from high school. To bad he didn't feel as though he was deserving of her kindness.


	3. Chapter 3

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 3

I.

Umbrella strategically placed to try to cover both of its occupants, Bonnie and Ron walked down the sidewalk towards the Better Days homeless shelter. Although the hour was late and the sidewalk empty, the two walked practically shoulder to shoulder due to the small size of Bonnie's umbrella. This proximity reinforced in her mind that Ron could use a good shower the first chance he got.

_Well of course he needs a shower; look at him; he's living on the streets_, she thought to herself. _Besides which_,_ you're being judgmental again,_ the voice inside her head continued. Bonnie really hated that the little voice inside of her was right and decided to shift her attention to something else, so she asked Ron a question.

"Ron, when we get to Better Days, do you want to try to call anyone? Like your parents or maybe Kim?"

"No." Ron answered softly.

This was not the answer that Bonnie had been expecting to hear. Ron not wanting to talk to his family was surprising, but to not want to talk to Kim, that was shocking. Maybe the two of them had had a falling out in the past. Thinking back to some of the things he had already said made Bonnie feel even more sympathetic for the former teen hero.

Still, even as much as she wanted to delve in to all the details of how he came to the point of being a homeless and broken man, Bonnie had been taught by good people not to do that sort of stuff. Instead she would offer help to Ron and if he felt like talking, then she would be there to listen. Simply listen, not judge, not belittle, just listen and be willing to help. Basically, the opposite of how Ron probably remembered her.

"Ok, but if you change your mind, we do have free phones you can use at Better Days shelter." Bonnie offered as they walked past a store with a window display that was full of TVs in it.

Ron was about to answer when suddenly one of the TVs switched from a cheesy sit com to a very loud and overly excited commercial complete with overly dramatic explosion sound effects that had been added for emphasis.

"No." Ron said as he stopped walking.

"It's ok, you don't have to…"

"No!" Ron said louder this time as he began to back away from the source of the noise.

"Ron? Are you ok?" Bonnie asked as she noticed that he had pulled away from her.

"No, no, no, NO!" Ron shouted as he put his hands up to his head. As he continued to back away from the TVs he wasn't watching where he was going and had wondered out in to the, luckily, deserted street.

"Ron! What's the matter?" Bonnie asked as she rushed in to the street as well. "You're in the middle of the street, please come back to the sidewalk."

"Leave me alone. Just leave me alone." Ron insisted, his eyes now wide and darting around.

"Ron, it's ok. No one is going to hurt you." Bonnie said as she held up her hands in plain sight trying to reassure the man.

"I, don't, want, to, hurt." Ron stammered as he began to look around as if he was expecting to be ambushed.

"Shh, Ron, its ok. There's no one else here except you and me."

As Bonnie stood there facing Ron she failed to notice that a car had approached behind her, the driver laying on his horn as he slammed on the brakes.

The sudden commotion caused Bonnie to spin around to confront the irate driver.

"Hey out of the road lady! What are you drunk?"

"Blow it out your ass!" Bonnie responded. She then turned around and saw that Ron was fleeing down the road away from her.

Bonnie simply ignored the irate driver's continued blaring of his horn as she took to chase after Ron. However, after several minutes of pursuit through various streets and ally ways, Bonnie had not only ditched her mangled and damaged umbrella, but she had also lost sight of Ron to the rainy darkness of the night.

II.

Bonnie walked in to the Better Days homeless shelter feeling both rather wet and depressed. She had considered it a stroke of luck that she had found Ron and that she had actually convinced him to come to the shelter with her. But then her luck turned on her as quick as week old milk left out in the Sahara desert and she had lost Ron as he darted off in to the night.

"Hi Bonnie. You look pretty bummed out, and wet too. What happened?" Clarence asked.

"I was out looking for Ron again." Bonnie said as she helped her self to cup of coffee in order to warm up.

"Still no luck finding him? You've been looking for him ever since he got kicked out."

Bonnie dejectedly shook her head. "Luck, only if you count bad luck. But I did find him."

"Say what? I'm not following you Bonnie, and if you found this guy why wouldn't you bring him here?"

"I did find him, and I was trying to bring him here."

"You weren't forcing him were you? Haven't I told you that the best way to help people is not by forcing them, but by enabling them? Help those who want help."

"I know Clarence. I wasn't forcing him or anything. I had convinced him that staying here for the night was a better option than the pathetic shelter he had built for himself."

"Bonnie, I'm surprised by you. That pathetic shelter as you call it was the closest thing he has to a home and you just insulted it."

Bonnie's face grew contrite as she realized how bad what she had just said sounded.

"No I didn't mean it like that. Ron just didn't have any decent materials to work with and his shelter would have barely kept him dry, never mind warm, and that was before it collapsed and fell apart."

Clarence nodded his head in understanding. He had known Bonnie for some years now and every once in a while he could see traces of the old Bonnie emerge. But he was always quick to keep his promise to help her shut down those impulses when ever they came up.

"Fair enough. So where is the man if he was willing to stay at our fine establishment for the night?"

"We were walking past a window display that had a bunch of TVs in it. One of them began to show one of those overly loud overly fake excited commercials, well I guess the sudden noise must have triggered some sort of PTSD in him because he became frazzled and wondered in to the street. I went to try to coax him back out of the street but a car came up behind me when the driver blared his horn it spooked him and he ran off. I tried to follow him but I lost him."

Clarence could see that Bonnie was upset by this and he placed a reassuring hand on the brunettes shoulder.

"It's ok Bonnie. I've seen stuff like that before. One night I had a young man come in here and after I had gotten him settled in to his cot for the night some one dropped a bottle of soda on the floor. The sound of the bottle breaking must have triggered something in that poor man because he thought he was back in Anbar Province, Iraq.

"Any ways he was starting to become desperate looking for some thing for him to take cover under, and he was starting to agitate some of the other people around him. Fortunately, in the cot next to him was an older gentleman who knew exactly what the kid was going through as he had been in Vietnam during the end of the war."

Bonnie looked at the man as she thought about his tale. "So you're saying I need to find a combat vet to help him out?" She asked.

"Not quite, but try to find someone who understands what he's been through."

This actually caused Bonnie to frown a little. "That might be harder than I thought."

"Why do you say that? I'm guessing your friend there," Clarence caught the surprised look on Bonnie's face as he made that statement, "Look I know what you said about how you feel badly about how you treated him back in high school, but after all you've been trying to do for him over the past several days, I would say you are least willing to be his friend.

"Now as I was saying, I guess your friend must have seen some sort of combat experience, find a veteran's support group so he can talk through some of his issues, there are lots of them around these days."

"That's what really has me worried. Not that he got spooked and ran off, but before that, I had asked him if he wanted to contact his family or anyone else he cared about and let them know that he's ok. He told me he didn't want to."

Clarence considered this piece of information for a few seconds before offering up some advice to Bonnie.

"If you really are serious about trying to fix your past wrongs, then you need to keep looking for this guy. In my experience, when ever someone doesn't want to reach out to their family it's usually because they are feeling shame, either about something they've done, or for where they are in life now. Either way this man sounds like he has a lot of issues and is going to need someone who understands what it's like to work through issues.

"But it sounds like he's in no state of mind to want to interact with anyone, so trying to bring him here again would be a mistake."

"But you said I need to keep looking for him…"

"Just not tonight Bonnie. For now you need to go home and get some rest so you can be ready to look again later. Oh, and before you head for home, you might want to check your make up, it looks like your facial scar is showing."

III.

"Agent Du, please give me your report." Dr. Director ordered her senior agent.

Agent Will Du nodded his head as he complied.

"Our information about the facility being associated with WEE was correct. But instead of storing equipment or henchmen, it was mostly full of files and paper pushers."

Doctor Betty Alexandria Director considered this information for a moment.

"Well WEE is a global operation, so they most likely need to have some sort of front businesses to handle the more mundane and legal aspects of their operations."

"Undoubtedly," Agent Du agreed, "But during the initial triage of materials we came across some documents that mentioned Ronald Stoppable by name in relation to something called project Sagittarius."

This news had Dr. Director's full and undivided attention.

"We are continuing to go through the documents to try to glean what we can from it."

"Very well then, Agent Du, this task will be your top priority. Be aware that I'll probably be pulling in Kim Possible on this one too."

Agent Du nodded his head even as he groaned on the inside. When she had been a teenager Kim Possible had a lot of potential despite being an amateur. Something that would have been rectified had the teen hero joined Global Justice.

But after the disappearance of Ron Stoppable, who as far as Will was concerned; was even more of an amateur, Kim had decided against joining Global Justice and instead had started doing free lance work when she wasn't searching for Ron. Now the former teen hero, whose actions over the past decade had slightly tarnished her reputation, only did occasional contract work for Global Justice.

IV.

Ron swung his fist and it made contact with his opponents face and sent the man's head whipping sideways while blood flew from it as it reacted to the blow. Ron then followed up his attack and landed four more blows just as fully as the first one. The last hit sent the man to the ground where he laid bleeding but not moving. Ron then knelt down to grab the man's shirt and pulled him up towards him.

The beaten man, his face bloody and turned away from Ron began to speak, his voice sounding familiar.

"Why did you stop Ronald? Isn't this what you are, a beast that can't control yourself? Someone who just goes around hurting those around him."

Once the man's face was a mere six inches away Ron noticed that the bloodied and injured face looking back at him was not just any face, but his very own face.

"No!" Ron let out a shout as he awoke with a start from the dream. As the image of the dream receded from his mind he began to feel around as if searching for something. Groaning at failing to find anything Ron slowly opened his eyes and saw that not only had image that had just frightened him had only been a dream, but that he was in a tent of some sort.

But any further musing the man had were interrupted by the sound of a new voice from the other end of the tent.

"Looking for something?"

Ron slowly turned around and saw a man sitting at the entrance of the tent. A sense of self disgust began to well up inside of Ron as he considered this wasn't the first time he had found himself in a predicament like this. Usually when someone offered to share a tent with you it was because they expected something in return, many times they wouldn't be that picky if the company was a man or a woman as long as the guest put out.

"Thought you might be looking for this." The man said holding up a half empty bottle of vodka.

Ron slowly nodded his head.

"To bad, you can't have it. We don't allow alcohol in the camp."

"Then I'll leave." Ron said as he attempted to get up.

"You sure you want to do that son?"

"Why? Looking for a tent companion again?" Ron asked as he warily sat back down.

The man frowned at Ron's comment. "I know how and what things get traded in an encampment like this, so no; I'm not looking for that. Besides, we try to discourage stuff like that too."

"Why do you care?" Ron asked as he felt a wave of nausea come over him.

"Because you look like you could use another day's rest. You were in rough shape when we found you at the edge of camp last night."

Ron just sat there silently.

"The name's Adam, but everyone calls me Grizzly Adams because of the beard." The man said with a bit of mirth as he stroked his full beard that had a healthy number of grays mixed in with the auburn colored whiskers. "What's your name?"

Ron just continued to sit there silently.

"I know you're running form something kid," Grizzly said as he held up the bottle of alcohol, "But I know you're looking for something too."

"Hmm, you sound like Master Sensei." Ron mocked.

"I'm no sensei, but I know that you were talking in your sleep last night. Must have been a serious dream you had about someone you care about. You kept muttering about how sorry you were for hurting them. Guess you were talking about your family."

Ron tightly shut his eyes as if he was trying to force the thoughts from his aching mind. Right now he really wished that he had the bottle of vodka to help numb his pain.

"It's ok son. We all have nightmares about the things that either got us here or keep us here. But the important thing is to not let them keep you down."

Ron simply laid back down and rolled over as his headache, or was it a hangover, got the better of him.

"Yeah I figured you could use some rest. We'll talk more later."

Backing out of the tent in order to let the unnamed man rest, Grizzly Adams did at least have the courtesy to close the tent flap behind him. He then made his way to another small tent where an overweight man wearing aluminum foil on his head sat watching.

"Did he tell you his name?"

"No Kevin he didn't." Adam answered. "Right now he's not in much of any sort of shape to want to answer a lot of questions."

"He can have some of my foil." Kevin offered as he began to look for his roll of aluminum foil.

Adam grinned at the man's thoughtfulness.

"Thanks Kevin, but I don't think foil will do much more for him than a bit of sleep and maybe some food."

He then sat there stroking his beard for a moment as if in thought, "Kevin, didn't you say that when you found him he has saying something about not wanting to hurt someone.

Kevin nodded his head, "He kept saying that he was sorry and that he didn't want to hurt her."

"Anything else?"

"Yes, he said, "I'm sorry Bonnie."


	4. Chapter 4

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 4

I.

Dr. Director hit the intercom on her desk which buzzed her aide, Agent Beck Ancall.

"Agent Ancall, when Ms. Possible arrives please send her straight in to my office."

"Yes Ma'am. Will you need the standard contract forms and non disclosure agreements?" The aide asked.

"No, the contract can wait till later, and I think we can forgo the NDA for today."

Just then the agent's attention was drawn towards a set of elevator doors that opened and its single occupant walked out. Recognizing the person he pressed a button on the intercom on his desk.

"Doctor Director, Ms. Possible is here."

"Thank you, send her in."

"Yes ma'am."

As the young woman approached his desk Beck Ancall addressed her.

"Doctor Director is waiting for you Ms. Possible."

"This better be good." The world saving hero said as she entered Dr. Director's office.

The one eyed woman who occupied said office smiled as she saw her guest enter and rose to greet her.

"Thank you for coming Jocelyn Possible."

"Yea yea, I was already on a mission when ya kidnapped me. So what do ya want?" Joss asked letting her country drawl out.

"Joss, in a couple of days from now I'm going to request that Team Possible perform a contract mission for me."

"Ya knaw my cousin Kim and Wade usually handle tha details."

"And they will. But I asked you here because when I contract Team Possible, I need you to make sure that Kim doesn't go off half cocked."

This piqued Joss' attention. "And da reason ya need me for that is why?"

"Because it could involve finding Ronald Stoppable."

II.

Bonnie sat on her back porch watching the sun rise over the horizon. This was her favorite time of the day, the time that she found the most peaceful and relaxing. It allowed her to sooth her soul and to collect her thoughts for the day ahead, which after the past couple of days the brunette could really use.

Between running a home business and trying to get the frame to her favorite family picture fixed, Bonnie had really cut back on the amount of time that she had spent looking for Ron. But if she could have just one uninterrupted day of work, then she could get back to doing what she really wanted to do, try to help Ron.

"Maybe Clarence is right. Maybe I'm letting this whole Ron thing become to much of an obsession." Bonnie muttered to herself.

_But what would David say?_ A voice inside of her head asked.

"After teasing me that I'm spending all my time looking for another man, that Clarence is probably right."

_And what else?_ The voice inquired further.

"That the right thing to do is all ways the best thing to do." Bonnie said before adding, "And that I should probably go see a shrink if I'm talking to myself."

This last quip actually brought a small smile to her face as she enjoyed the sun rise.

_Ok, spend the day focused on work and I'll leave you alone to look for Ron,_ Bonnie's conscience told her.

III.

"Here, hold this." Ron said as he placed a bit of tape over a piece of aluminum foil.

"Thank you. Now I don't have to wear my tinfoil hat inside of my tent." Kevin said as the two men finished putting up the last sheet of aluminum foil inside of Kevin's tent.

"Glad I could help." Ron said as he accepted the apple that Kevin had offered him.

"So you still plan on not staying with us?"

"No. I need to move on. It doesn't end well when I stay one place to long." Ron said sadly.

"Grizzly will be sad to see you go. He thinks you would make a good member of our community."

"That old softy thinks everyone is a good fit in our camp." Another man said. "I don't know why we let him make those decisions."

"Hey Grizzly tries to help take care of us." Kevin countered. "Besides Karl, why do you stay here then? Aren't you the self proclaimed anarchist of the camp?"

"Yes I am. But at least I tell people what my name is." Karl said while eyeing Ron.

"Leave him alone, he's a good guy, he just helped me put new tinfoil up in my tent. He just doesn't want to tell us his name."

As the two men were about to get in to an argument, Grizzly Adams walked up to the trio.

"Looks like the city is trying to clear us out again guys. Get ready to pack up if need be."

"They can't make us leave." Karl said.

"They might this time; it looks like they brought a little muscle this time in the form of a couple of police officers."

IV.

Bonnie was busy writing a PR proposal for a client when her phone buzzed. Picking it up she saw the caller ID said Better Days on it, curious, Bonnie answered the phone call.

"Bonnie speaking."

"Bonnie, its Clarence, hey I've gotten word that the city is trying to crack down on some of the homeless encampments around town. They plan on targeting the one near where you live. Can you do me a favor and go there, and if they are trying to remove people, give them some of our fliers and send them our way."

"You've got to be kidding me." Bonnie said in annoyance. "Those encampments are full of good people who are just down on their luck."

"We both know that Bonnie, but not everyone thinks that way."

"Ok, I'll head there and see what I can do."

Bonnie let out a sigh as she hung up the phone. This was going to cut in to her productivity for the day.

_Remember what we said about the right thing to do,_ the voice inside Bonnie's head rebutted.

"Yeah, yeah, the right thing to do is all ways the best thing to do." She muttered out loud.

Heading to the bedroom Bonnie grabbed her taser and slipped it in to the inner pocket of a light coat. She then grabbed a couple of dozen fliers that had contact information for the Better Days shelter and headed out the door.

"Looking up at the sky Bonnie considered shaking her fist at the sky to show her displeasure at the weather and life in general. But she hadn't realized that she had actually done that until she heard a friendly voice from across the yard.

"Aren't you supposed to be at seventy and yell at kids to stay off your lawn when you do that?"

Bonnie stopped in mid shake and looked at the sight of her neighbor Frank watching her with an amused look on his face. Whether the amusement came from Bonnie's actions or for how embarrassed she looked at being caught was up for debate.

"Oh hi Frank. Guess I just got tired of the weather always being so ugly whenever I try to go for a walk."

"Yeah the weather has been off and on ugly this season."

"Come on dad, let's go inside and eat before the burgers get cold." A pre-teen boy said as he came to a stop next to his father while carrying a large bag of hamburgers and tried not to overtly stare at Bonnie.

"All right Austin I'm coming. Make sure you wash up before you eat." Frank said as he placed his hand on his son's shoulder and gently pushed him along. He then looked at Bonnie with an exasperated look on his face. "Puberty must be kicking in, between that and soccer practice he can eat us out of house and home."

Bonnie smirked a little as she enjoyed a touch of schadenfreude, "Hey you and Traci are the ones that said you wanted a boy."

"Don't remind me." Frank said with a wave as he headed in to his house.

Bonnie was glad to see Frank go, for as much as she liked the man and his family, they were good neighbors after all, right now she had a homeless encampment to visit.

V.

A short time later Bonnie arrived at the nearby park and saw that the city was in fact trying to close down the local encampment there. Making her way towards the crowd she saw several social workers as well as a lone police officer.

"Excuse me. I work at a local shelter near here. If you're going to evict people from her today then at least let me give them these." Bonnie said as she held out one of her fliers.

The police officer looked at Bonnie for several seconds before taking a look at one of the fliers.

"It has information about the Better Days homeless shelter; we can give these people a place to stay for the night." Bonnie said with a smile as she tried to win over the cop.

"All right lady, but you stay away from any sort of trouble. My partner is on the other side of the bridge there and some of the residents here aren't happy about being evicted."

Bonnie nodded her head as she began to walk around talking to camp residents and handing out the flier. After about ten minutes of doing this the sound of an argument caught her attention.

"No. I just set this up. I won't take it down."

"Kevin, you need to calm down."

"Sir, this tent needs to come down right now or I'm going to have you arrested."

"You don't need to do that son. We won't cause any trouble."

"No! This is my stuff. He can't touch it."

Bonnie turned around and saw the two men arguing with what looked to be a young rookie cop. That must be the one the other cop had mentioned earlier. Still it wasn't a wise idea to have such an inexperienced cop here by himself.

As Bonnie began to approach the group she could hear the argument getting louder and saw that the rookie cop pulled out his gun.

"Son, you don't need to use that. We'll comply with your instructions." A man with a large beard said as he gently put a hand on the shoulder of an overweight man wearing a colander with aluminum foil on it.

"It's too late for that." The cop said, "He failed to follow my instructions and he touched me, he's going to jail."

This caused the man with the tinfoil to actually look scared.

"NO! I won't go. They do things to you in prison; they mess with your head."

"Kevin, please try to calm down." The man with the beard said.

"Step back sir unless you want to go to jail too." The rookie said as he began to grab for the man he wanted to arrest.

Just as the cop was about to grab Kevin's arm, another person suddenly appeared. In a familiar display of speed the cop's gun was removed from his hand and tossed aside, and then a quick jab was delivered to the face with a follow up blow to the back of the head as the officer went down. The officer lay there unmoving on the ground when his attacker was getting ready to kick the man in the chest.

"Ron! Don't!" Bonnie suddenly shouted which drew everyone's attention towards her. "Don't hurt him."

The man with the beard had at this point stepped between Ron and the unconscious cop and fixed Ron with a hard stare.

"Now ease back there son. The woman's right, you don't need to hurt the poor kid anymore than you already have."

Ron for his part simply blinked a few times as if he was realizing where he was and took a small step back.

"Who are you?" The man with tinfoil asked as Bonnie approached.

"My name's Bonnie. I volunteer at the Better Days shelter. When we heard they were trying to shut this camp down I came here to hand out these fliers and let people know they can stay at our shelter tonight."

The man with the beard turned from Ron and looked at Bonnie.

"Is that so?" He said in a thoughtful tone as he stroked his beard, "The name's Adam, but everyone calls me Grizzly Adams, and this here is Tinfoil Kevin. Nice to meet you Bonnie."

"How do you know this guys name, he never told us?" Kevin asked.

"I've been looking for him." Bonnie said as she looked at Ron, "Are you ok Ron? I've been worried about you since you ran off the other night."

Ron just stood there silently staring with a far off look on his face, a look that Bonnie was unfortunately beginning to associate with the man more and more instead of the happy go lucky face she used to know him for.

"So you two have a history then?" Grizzly asked.

"Sort of, we went to high school together."

A soft groan from the cop reminded everyone that he was still there and they needed to do something about the situation.

"When this kid wakes up he's going to either arrest the first person he sees or report that he was assaulted here, and that's just going to bring down even more heat. Sorry Kevin, but if you don't want to go to jail then it looks like we're going to have to break camp anyways."

"Here, take one of these fliers and go the Better Days shelter, tell them Bonnie sent you. They won't ask any questions and you can stay there for a couple of days till things settle down here." Bonnie said.

"But what about him?" Grizzly Adam's asked as he pointed his thumb towards Ron, "He just assaulted a police officer. I'm sure they're going to go looking for him at the local shelters around here."

Bonnie thought about that for a second when she had an idea.

"Ron, you can come and stay at my place for a few days until things cool down?"

Kevin and Adam shared a look between them.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" Grizzly asked.

Bonnie stepped towards Ron and looked at his face.

"Yes I do. I know he's a good person, he just needs someone to be good to him."

"I agree with you miss, but you saw what he just did, and it didn't look like he was going to stop either."

"I saw what he did. But I can take care of myself." Bonnie said as she discreetly revealed her taser, "I may be compassionate, but I'm not reckless."

VI.

Joss Possible has glad her mission was over as she entered the building that served as both her HQ and her home. The mission had been an easy one, simply probing the physical security of a client's building for vulnerabilities and weakness. It wasn't as glamorous as fighting villains, but it paid the bills.

Once she had turned fifteen, and had gained a few more years of practice under her belt, Joss had decided that she wanted to get in to the world saving hero business like her cousin Kim. At first it had been a sort of hit or miss affair, but luckily for the younger Possible, Kim and Wade had had a falling out so the genius tech support teen was looking for something to do. Seeing a few reports of Joss in action Wade had reached out to her and had started supporting Joss on missions like he had for Kim. After finishing college at the age of eighteen, Joss decided that she wanted to do the world saving business full time and she and Wade had developed a plan that would let them make a living from doing it.

The plus side for Joss was that she had name recognition by being a Possible. The down side was that Joss had notoriety for having the name Possible. After the disappearance of Ron, Kim had devoted a large amount of her energy towards looking for the man. In fact Kim had started putting so much of her time in to looking for Ron that she began to ignore requests for help from her website and her once stellar reputation had taken its first hit. The second hit came later when as Kim became more and more desperate searching for Ron she began to go rogue and do things that one would think applied more to villains than the hero Kim Possible.

So Joss and Wade had to convince the older Possible woman to let the younger Possible join her in order to rehabilitate the name Team Possible. It had taken some time, but the reputation of Team Possible was better now than it had been a few years ago.

Grabbing a glass Joss walked up to her cousin who seemed to be looking at something on the computer and sat down next to her. Joss grabbed the bottle of bourbon and poured herself one finger worth while noting that Kim's glass had two fingers worth in it, and it was only three in the afternoon.

"How was your mission?" Kim asked.

"Easy pesy, just ya standard probing for vulnerabilities and weakness of a client's building." Joss answered as she described her most recent mission while leaving out the part about her meeting with Dr. Director. As she finished she noticed that Kim was focused on the screen of her computer.

"Whatcha lookin at cus?" Joss asked.

"A request for a contract job from Global Justice." Kim answered.

"Really now, what do they want us to do?" Joss asked in surprise that Global Justice had made the request sooner than anticipated.

"They want us to pay a visit to a Dr. Gehirn Unterbrecher and follow up on any information he has about a WEE project called Sagittarius."

"Is that all it says?" Joss asked.

"Pretty much." Kim said as she took a sip from her drink.


	5. Chapter 5

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 5

I.

"You don't have to do this." Ron said as he and Bonnie walked towards her house.

"Yes I do Ron."

Ever since they had fled the homeless encampment at the park, the duo had been in a light argument about the necessity of Ron staying at Bonnie's place for a few nights until things had settled down a bit.

"You don't have to feel like you're making up to me from high school. I don't hate you for that."

Bonnie simply rolled her eyes. "Ron, this isn't about high school. Yes I treated you badly in high school. But this isn't about me trying to make up for that."

"Then what is it about?" Ron asked.

"It's about the now, and doing the right thing."

Ron shot a sideways glance at the brunette next to him but was distracted when she announced they had reached their destination. Looking at the spacious single level family dwelling Ron thought it seemed like a lot more house than the woman needed. Maybe not everything about Bonnie had changed as it appeared that keeping up with the Jones's was still a priority for her.

After letting the two of them in, Bonnie gave a quick tour of her casa.

"This is the living room, dinning room, and kitchen. Down the hallway to the right are my room, my office, and a guest room. My room and the guest room are off limits. To the left is another guest room and guest bathroom that you can use those tonight. Once you get cleaned up I'll get us something to eat."

"Thank you." Ron said, "But you don't need to wait up for me. You probably need to take care of your family or get ready to go to work tomorrow."

Bonnie simply smiled. This was the Ron that she remembered, considerate and caring for others. "It's ok, its just me here, and I have a home business, so no commute and I can tell the boss I'll be as late or early as I want. This is a good thing because I hear that in the past she used to be a real bitch."

That small dose of self deprecating humor was just enough to bring the smallest of grins to Ron's face.

"But enough about me; lets get you cleaned up and settled in for the night."

II.

"I'll go in the front way, you go in the back." Kim said as they surveilled their target in a town called Easternville. It was an unassuming building that stood at the end of a strip mall with a simple sign that read Dr. G. Unterbrecher, Psychiatrist.

"You sure about this cus?"

"Yes. We need to be able to interrogate the doctor as well as search his office if we want to find any information about Project Sagittarius."

Kim's gaze never left the building as she watched a woman, most likely just an orderly, turned off the lights and locked the front door of the building.

"That's everyone expect the Doctor. Let's go." Kim instructed as she discreetly made her way to the front door.

Joss knew better than to argue and simply made her way around to the back of the building. Besides, she needed to be inside the building too if she was going to try to restrain Kim from doing something ill advised.

Kim for her part had no such worries as she did her best to not draw any attention to herself as she tried the front door. The rattle of the lock told her it was secure, but not secure enough to be a real obstacle. Whipping out her lipstick laser she quickly cut through the look and opened the door just enough for her to slip inside.

Standing there for a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darkness, Kim saw that she was standing in a small waiting room. To her left was a small office that could comfortably fit a single receptionist, while to the right were four comfy but plain looking chairs that sat beneath a wall full of advertisements for various psychological medications. At the back of the waiting room was a standard looking door that although closed did allow a small amount of light to escape from underneath. Kim made her way to the door but was surprised when it opened on its own.

"Vho's dhere?" Asked an older looking gentleman, if his bald head and white beard were any indication, and whose accent did nothing to dispel the notion in Kim's mind that he most likely worked for the bad guys. His eyes fall on to Kim

"Ve are closed for dhe day. Come back tomorrow frau."

"Dr. Unterbrecher, I'm seeking information about your possible involvement with the Worldwide Evil Empire." Kim said as she approached the doctor.

"If you are police dhan come back tomorrow vith a varrant." The doctor said as he slowly retreated back towards his office, "Until dhen I do not have to answer your questions."

"I neither need nor want a warrant." Kim said as she continued to close the distance between them, "I want information about you working for WEE and Project Sagittarius."

The doctor's eyes widened for a mere second before he regained his composure.

"I know nothing of dhis VEE or Project Sagittarius."

The look of surprise on the doctor's face as well as his continued retreating told Kim all she needed to know. Finally closing the gap between them she grabbed Dr. Unterbrecher by the shirt and pulled him closer to her as she growled, "Don't lie to me."

"I know nothing, nothing." He protested lamely.

Kim simply slammed the man down in to his desk chair and grabbed one of his hands before slapped it down on his desk. Looking over the various items on his desk she found an award of some kind that had a six inch tall brass statue with a heavy solid wooden base.

"Vait, vhat are you doing?"

Kim ignored the man as she picked up the award and slammed it down on his pinky finger.

"Agghh, Nein!" The man shouted.

Ignoring the man's cries of pain Kim repeated the process on his middle finger this time. Kim had just lifted her arm to deliver another blow when she heard a female voice call her name.

"That's enough Kim. He's ready to talk." Joss said as she stepped in to the room before making her way to search the computer and filing cabinets.

Kim frowned at being interrupted but she dropped the award on to the desk and glared at the man.

"Now talk!" She ordered.

"I vas approached by a man to provide medication for a patient. Dhey paid me in cash to keep him compliant. Dhat is all I know."

"Where is he now?" Kim demanded.

"I do not know."

"I asked where is he?" Kim demanded again as she pressed down on one of the man's battered fingers.

"OW! I don't know frau, I svear it. Dhey took me to him, I never treated him here at my office."

"When?!"

"It started four years ago, I have not seen him in over a year."

"Hold on Kim, I may have something here." Joss said as she was scanning through documents she had found at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet. "Here's a folder marked Sagittarius, and something about a patient named RS, something about violent tendencies as well as a list of drugs and doses." Then after a few more seconds or reading she added, "And it looks like the file was started four years ago."

Joss looked up from the document and at the doctor; she then pulled out her communicator and called Wade.

"Wade, get in touch with Dr. Director, tell her to send in her guys right away, I think we found a lead on Ron."

Kim looked at Joss in momentary confusion. "Wait, how do you know about Ron being the real reason we came here? I didn't tell you about that." Kim asked.

"I know you didn't. Dr. Director did. She pulled me in for a quick chat the day before she sent the mission contract to you."

"You knew about a possible lead on Ron a FULL day before I did?! You withheld information from me!" Kim shouted.

"And you did too by not telling me this was about looking for Ron." Joss said as she continued to scan the documents in her hands.

"How dare you do that to me!"

Joss had now lost her patience with Kim and whirled around to face the woman.

"Listen to yourself Kim. Will you please stop and listen to yourself. You're starting to go rogue again. Look what you've already done in here, breaking and entering, no warrant, you were torturing the Doctor and would have kept going if I hadn't of stopped you. You even lied to me about the mission."

"Because this is about Ron!" Kim screamed.

"I know Kim, but it's about you too."

This brought Kim up short.

"You're hurt, you've been hurting for a long time now."

"I'll be fine when I find Ron." Kim said coldly as she grabbed a hold of the statue and slammed the base of it down on to the top of Dr, Unterbrecher's hand causing the man to holler in pain again before she stormed out of the building.

"Bitte fraulein, don't leave me with her." Dr. Unterbrecher stuttered in fear as he cradled his abused hand.

"Ah, I ain't gonna do that, I'm turning you over to Global Justice." Joss said.

Twenty minutes later a Global Justice had taken in to custody everything of value, including the good doctor. Her mission complete Joss placed a call to Wade.

"Hey Joss, are you ready for a ride back home?" He asked.

"Ya, I am."

"Is Kim riding back with you?" Wade could tell by the tone of the woman's voice that something was wrong.

"I donna know. She stormed out of her a while ago and I haven't seen her since."

Wade nodded his head in understanding.

"Would you like some company tonight? Maybe a sympathetic ear?"

Joss actually smiled at the suggestion. She and Wade had dated for a while, but it just hadn't worked out for them though they remained friends. Some times friends with benefits.

III.

Stepping in to the guest bathroom that Bonnie had pointed out, Ron stripped out of his worn, and quite honestly stinky, clothes. Already laid out in the bathroom were a set of fluffy towels along with wash clothes and even a bathrobe. Ron figured that the guest bathroom was probably used frequently by guests that Bonnie had stay over. But these thoughts slipped from the blonds' mind as he stepped in to the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the hot water falling on his body.

It had been weeks since Ron's last real shower, and even longer since he'd had a hot one. After a few moments of bliss he opened his eyes and noted that in addition to the bathroom being stocked with towels and washcloths, the shower it self contained a bottle of men's body wash and another of men's shampoo. For the moment Ron simply ignored this fact as he worked to clean him self up by scrubbing the grime and stink off of himself. After stepping out of the shower and drying off Ron was surprised to hear Bonnie's voice from the other side of the bathroom door.

"Ron, I left some clean clothes for you outside the door, and there's shaving cream and a razor in there if you want to shave."

Before his mind could form a response Ron heard the sound of Bonnie's foot steps retreating away from the door.

Opening the medicine cabinet that hung over the sink the blond man was surprised to find the very items that Bonnie had mentioned. Ron's mind began to slowly ask a simple question as he began to lather up with shaving cream. Why does Bonnie have so much men's stuff in this bathroom? At first Ron had a snarky mental comment about the type of guests that Bonnie must have over, but his conscience quickly pushed the thought from his mind and scolded him for thinking like that even as he partook of her generosity.

IV.

Gemini received the report about Dr. Unterbrecher capture by Global Justice with mild annoyance. The good doctor had always been a small but useful asset to his operations; his loss would be a disruption, but nothing major.

"There is one more thing to report sir." The man designated as Pi said as he read the report.

The one eyed leader of WEE knew from experience that when a subordinate said that, it was never a good thing. Still he kept his temper under control until the man had finished his report about the several filing cabinets that had been removed from Dr. Unterbrecher's office.

_Damn Germans and their fetish for bureaucratic_ _efficiency and record keeping_, he thought. Not only had they lost the doctor, but all of his files as well, which would lead Global Justice to figuring out that WEE was connected to the disappearance of Ronald Stoppable.

Gemini then turned to his number two man, Beta.

"Is there any chance that we can restart Project Simian?" He asked.

"We can try sir, but based on the previous results I doubt we will do any better a second time."

Gemini nodded his head in understanding. "Very well then, in order for Project Sagittarius to continue to succeed we need to make sure Ronald Stoppable disappears for good."

"But how do we find him sir, we've looked for over a year with out finding him."

Gemini sighed in frustration at the situation. Once his quest to harness Ronald Stoppable's Mystical Monkey Powers had failed, he had decided that the boy could still be of use to him. By making sure that he remained useless to Kim Possible and Global Justice then they would not be able to use his powers either. Some of his subordinates had argued that simply executing Ronald would achieve the same goal.

But Sheldon was a man who always planned ahead. He may not have been able to harness the Mystical Monkey Power now, but that didn't mean he never would in the future. So why throw away a possible resource when he could serve a useful function by mentally destroying the person that Kim Possible and Global Justice knew. For years they had succeeded in that endeavor, but he had managed to one day escape from the mental asylum that WEE had been holding him at.

"Begin a sweep with in fifty miles of the area from where Ronald had escape. He may simply be living on the streets not far from there." He ordered, "Also, keep two strike teams on stand by, one to follow Kim, and the other to follow Global Justice. Surely one of them will lead us to Ronald."

V.

Later a clean, dry, and freshly shaven Ron Stoppable walked in to the living room of Bonnie's house.

"I bet you're feeling a lot better. How do the clothes fit?" Bonnie asked from the kitchen.

"A little loose, but comfortable." Ron answered, "Thank you."

"You're welcome. But if the clothes are a little loose then let's see if we can fatten you up a little then, I've just about got dinner ready." Bonnie said as she placed a couple of plates on the table.

"Coma eat yous a pasta, ita make ya nice an fat." Bonnie said in a really bad Italian accent.

Ronald groaned as he took a seat at the table.

"Gah, that was so bad I might want to go back to being on the streets."

Bonnie simply stuck out her tongue as she brought the rest of the food to the table.

"We've got salad, tortellini with meat sauce, garlic bread…" But she stopped midsentence as she got a good look at the scar on Ron's now beardless face.

"Ron, what happened to your cheek?"

"Oh, do you mean my scare?" He asked.

"Yes your scar, it looks bad. It doesn't hurt does it? How did you get it?"

"I've had it for a few years now, and no it doesn't hurt anymore." Ronald said as he served himself up some food.

"How did you get it?"

Ron frowned a little at the question, "I'd rather not talk about it."

Bonnie nodded her head and began to dish out some food on to her plate too. She had picked up her fork and was about to stab a tortellini when she heard a strange sound. It was a sound she didn't recognize but it seemed to be coming from Ronald.

Looking at the man she saw that his head was down and his lips were moving as if he was saying something. In sudden realization that Ron was speaking Yiddish, Bonnie put her fork down and waited.

"Thank you for waiting, but you didn't need to wait on me."

"That's ok. I don't remember you being all the religious in high school. I guess you're a little more so now."

"Not really. But this is the first time I've really had to be thankful in a long time."

VI.

Joss lay on her bed next to Wade with her head on his shoulder as they each nursed a glass of bourbon.

"Thanks for listening Wade." Joss said.

"Hey no big, I'm worried about her too."

"Do you think Kim is really going to go rogue again?"

"I hope not. But based on what you told me she very well might."

Joss let out a sigh.

"Hey, what else is on your mind?" Wade asked.

"I know it sounds bad Wade, but I've been thinking again that maybe we should quite Team Possible and strike out on our own." Joss said weakly.

"Yeah I guess if Kim is going to starting acting out again then maybe we should do that. But I would hate to leave her on her own."

Joss nodded her head before taking another sip of her drink. Today had not been the first time that she and Wade had discussed splitting up from Team Possible, but after the mission to capture Dr. Unterbrecher she had been thinking about it a lot. Finally as she finished her drink she made a decision.

"Wade, please stay with me tonight."


	6. Chapter 6

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 6

I.

Bonnie was partaking in an early morning jog after she had enjoyed watching the sun rise earlier. The previous night she and Ron had talked for a while after dinner, mostly just laying out ground rules for his stay at Bonnie's home. Such as a reminder that Bonnie's room as well as the guest room across from her room were off limits. In addition Bonnie pointed out that she did not like to keep any alcohol in the house. Finally, and most importantly, if Ron needed anything, even just to talk, that he should just let Bonnie know. After their discussion of visitor rules Bonnie could see that Ron was in need of a good night's sleep and she had sent him off to bed around eight in the evening. He had still been asleep when she had left for her jog and she wondered if he would still be asleep when she got back. _Well can you blame him for sleeping in? He's had a chance to get cleaned up, eat a decent meal, and sleep in a real bed, _She thought to her self.

As the former cheerleader continued her run she was enjoying listening to the radio, at least until the news came on.

"This is your favorite DJ in the world, DJ DJ with my co-host Radio Rick. All right folks, lets get a quick run down on the highlights from the news. Well it looks like our rivalry with neighboring Easternville, may have finally hit the big time. It appears that Global Justice swooped in and raided a small psychologist clinic in their fair city."

"You're kidding me right?" Radio Rick asked in disbelief, "A Podunk little town like Easternville has a raid by Global Justice. Come on people, what is wrong with you? Oh you know those wanna be big city losers are going to drive the twenty five miles over here just to taunt us that they got something before we did."

"I know Radio Rick. Sure they are probably tired of us here in Westernville looking down on them, but geez, they didn't need to resort to that."

Bonnie turned off her radio as she had no interest in hearing the juvenile banter of the DJs.

II.

"What do you have to report Agent Du?"

"Ma'am, based on our analysis of the material from both the WEE warehouse we raided along with the information obtained by Team Possible we have reached the following conclusion as to WEE's activities as they relate to Ronald Stoppable.

"Ten years ago Ronald was kidnapped by WEE as a part of Project Simian, which apparently was an attempt to study and possibly harness the Mystical Monkey Powers that the young man has access to. There are no signs to indicate that they were successful, although based on what information we were able to uncover, it sounds as if it was not for lack of trying. There were a few reports that documented some rather horrific acts they carried out on the poor soul."

Dr. Director mentally took note of the descriptive terms that Will Du used. Agent Du was one of her best agents, but he was also known to be a bit of an uptight type who remained clinically detached at all times. To refer Du use the term "poor soul" made Betty wonder just how bad things had been.

"At some point WEE decided that they would stop working on Project Simian, and instead started Project Sagittarius. We don't have all of the details of that project, but the best we can surmise is they planned on mentally twisting Ronald to the point that he would be useless to anyone."

III.

"Good morning. How did you sleep?" Bonnie asked with a smile as Ron came out of the guest bathroom.

"Better than I have in some time." Ronald replied with a small smile.

"Glad to hear it." Bonnie said as she returned the smile, "Care for some breakfast?"

Ron looked at the woman and tried to square the two aspects of her that were before him. On the outside she looked almost the same as in high school, just a little fuller and slightly longer hair, but still good looking. Her voice was the same too. But it was the words that came out of her mouth and her actions that were completely opposite of the woman he knew from those years ago. As he was looking at the brunette he noticed that she was wearing a jogging suit.

"Is that what you usually wear around the house?"

"What? Oh this?" Bonnie asked as she pointed towards her running outfit. "No I just went for a jog this morning before you got up."

"Still an early riser?" Ron asked as he made his way to the kitchen.

Bonnie nodded her head, "Yeah, a lot of the time I like to get up and watch the sun rise. It just gives me inner peace. That and coffee, help your self to some by the way."

"Inner peace sounds good. Maybe I'll have to try it some time." Ronald said as he pushed his long hair out of the way of his eyes before pouring him self half a cup of coffee.

"You should." Bonnie replied, "Oh how many eggs would you like?"

"Two please." Ron said as he poured a lot of cream and sugar in to his coffee before taking a sip. As the hot, sweet, creamy drink went down this throat Ron closed his eyes and savored every second of the feeling.

Bonnie waited approximately thirty seconds for Ron to take another sip and achieve a tiny amount of inner peace before she asked a question.

"Ron would you like to contact your family or Kim?"

"No." He said as all signs of inner peace were erased from his face.

This was now the second time that Bonnie had heard this answer and it still surprised her just as much as the first time.

"Why? Don't you want then to know that you're ok?"

He simply shook his head no, "I'm not ok."

"Ok then, I won't ask again. But when you feel like you are ok, I'll help you to reach out to them."

IV.

Joss was in the kitchen of Team Possible Headquarters building when she saw Kim come out of her bed room that was on the other side of the building. The older Possible girl's skin looked flushed as if she had been drinking again.

"The rouge rogue returns." Joss said sarcastically as she cut an apple in to slices.

"Don't start with me today." Kim said.

"Maybe someone should. You took off before Global Justice could even show up and secure the mission site in Easternville the other day."

"We already got what we needed."

"But we hadn't finished the mission, if the mission isn't completed then we don't get paid, you know that." Joss explained as she took a bite of apple, "Then you don't show up the next day either."

"I had things to do."

"Yeah, like run from your self again."

"Think what ever you want." Kim said as she shot a look at Joss.

"Well what I think is that you need to get yourself cleaned up. Remember we're still rebuilding the reputation of Team Possible." Joss countered as she noted Kim's blood shot eyes.

"My reputation's fine."

"If you say so. Just don't forget that in a week you have to give that motivational talk to that elementary school in Westernville." Joss said popping another piece of apple in to her mouth while she left the kitchen.

Once back in her own room Joss sat down on her bed and let out a long loud sigh. She had been thinking about what to do with her life lately and had even had several long and deep conversations with Wade about it. But she still didn't know what she wanted to do, or at least she hadn't until a few moments ago. Seeing the sorry state of Kim being in one of her moods again had been the final straw and Joss knew that she could not keep working for Team Possible any more.

Moving to the small desk in one corner of her room Joss took out a few sheets of paper and a pen and began to write a letter. In the letter Joss explained all of the reasons that both she and Wade were worried about Kim and the state of Team Possible. As the words continued to flow on to the paper Joss knew that Kim would feel betrayed when she read letter, for in reality Joss wasn't just writing a list of her grievances with Kim, she was writing her letter of resignation from Team Possible.

Still Joss would grant her cousin one small favor, she would hold off on giving Kim the letter until after she had returned from Westernville.

V.

"Ron, how would you like a hair cut? I don't think the long hair look works for you." Bonnie asked.

At the mention of his hair Ron unconsciously ran a hand through his long locks as he considered the offer.

"Well I'll admit that I'm not a huge fan of the long hair look. Makes me look like some sort of middle aged Baby Boomer. But I don't have any money to pay for a hair cut." He said with a hint of defeat, "Guess I'll just have to keep my hair then."

"That's actually not a problem. You can repay me for getting you a hair cut." Bonnie stated.

Ron was taken by surprise by Bonnie's offer and looked at her, "You, you would do that for me?"

"If you do want it cut then I can do it for you, just let me go get my stuff."

Ron watched as the former queen bee of Middleton High walked away, idly he wondered just how many more secrets his benefactor was hiding.

A few moments later Bonnie returned with a small plastic container that contained a pair of scissors, a hand mirror, an electric razor, a small spray can of cutting lubricant, and a drape cloth.

"Fetch one of the chairs from the dining table please." Bonnie instructed as she laid out her supplies from their container.

Ron went to the dinning room and returned with a chair as instructed.

"Ok, lets set you up over here near your guest room since its on tile flooring, that will make clean up easier."

Ron placed the chair as he was told and took a seat in it.

"Are you sure about this?" Ron asked as Bonnie draped a cloth around his shoulders.

"Trust me you'll look a lot better after I'm done with you."

"Yeah but what if you end up messing with my essential Roness?" He asked in jest.

This small joke brought a smile to Bonnie's face. One of the things she had learned over the years of working at the homeless shelter was that the surest sign that a person felt comfortable and at ease with things was when they were able to crack a joke.

"No offense Ron but with your hair long like this you look more like that villain you used to fight, you know the one that would always drive monster trucks and play heavy metal."

"You mean Motor Ed." Ron asked as he heard and smelt lubricant being sprayed on to the scissors.

"Yeah him, the villain look just doesn't suit you in my opinion."

Ron was quite for a moment as he listened to the sound of scissors begin to snip away at his hair.

"You really think so?" Ron asked meekly.

"What? Don't you agree? I mean I've never seen you ever be evil." Bonnie answered honestly.

"I haven't always been known to be a nice guy."

"No one is one hundred percent of the time. But the question is how do you feel after not being a nice guy? If it bothers you then that means your conscience is still there."

"My conscience does bother me. Not just for what I have done, but what I might do."

"Is that why you don't want to contact your family?"

Bonnie realized that she had hit a sore point for the man when she felt Ron tense up and she regretted having asked the question.

"Sorry I asked that question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want." She added quickly.

Ron just sat there continuing to say nothing but he remained tense.

Finally after an hour of awkward silence Bonnie announced that she was done. Ron looked at himself in the mirror and had to agree that he looked a lot better than he did an hour ago.

"Where did you learn to cut hair like this?"

"You're not the first male head of hair I've had to cut, although it's been a few years."

"You used to cut men's hair for a living?" Ron asked both perplexed and intrigued by this information.

"Not quite, just Zachary's." Bonnie said as she quickly gathered up her hair cutting supplies. "Ugh, I'm going to take a shower to get this hair off of me."

"Tell you what then, I'll make dinner for us." Ron said just before Bonnie shut the door to her bed room.

VI.

Bonnie felt clean and refreshed after her shower. She also felt accomplished. It had been a few years since the last time she had cut a head of hair, but she was pretty happy with the way that Ron's hair cut had turned out. Stepping out of the shower and in to the steam filled bathroom Bonnie made her way to the bedroom in order to dry off and dress. As she was getting dressed she began to pick up a whiff of something that smelled good.

"Dinner's ready." Ron announced from the kitchen as he heard the door to Bonnie's bedroom open up.

"It smells delicious." Bonnie said as she took a seat at the table.

"Glad you think it smells good. Hopefully it tastes good too."

"Why wouldn't it? Of all the things I ever used to belittle you about in high school your amazing cooking skills was actually the one thing even I couldn't speak badly about." Bonnie supplied with a small smile.

Ron looked at the woman and once again tried to reconcile in his mind the difference between the two different Bonnies. As he was staring he noticed something about her that he had not noticed before.

"Why are you staring at me?" Bonnie asked.

Realizing that he was in fact staring Ron simply looked down at his food and began to eat.

"Umm, it's not bad, but not as good as what I used to make." Ron said as a way to try to change the subject.

Bonnie, still feeling a bit abashed from her earlier faux pas decided to follow Ron's lead and took a bite of food herself.

"Mmm, I think its good Ron."

"You really think so?" He asked.

"Yes. You might be a little out of practice, but it's still a really good meal."

"Thank you." Ron said with a genuine smile on his face. "But you aren't saying that just because you didn't have to cook?"

"Now I won't deny that a good home cooked meal that I didn't have to cook always tastes best. But no I'm not saying that just to pick on you, this really does taste good Ron."

After several more minutes of silence as the two continued eating Ron couldn't help but to ask a question that had been on his mind for a while now.

"Bonnie, may I ask you a question?"

"Ahh, sure, what's on your mind?"

"I, I was wondering about that scar on your face."

Bonnie's eyes went wide as her left hand flew up to her face as if to try to cover it up.

"That's something I don't like to talk about." She said sternly as she rose from her seat and went to her room.


	7. Chapter 7

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 7

I.

Dr. Director took a sip of coffee as she read through the executive summary of Agent Du's findings from his investigation in to both Project Simian as well as Project Sagittarius. The findings disturbed her. Usually a detailed report would accompany the executive summary giving the reader a chance to look at all the details of a case.

But after working on the case for the past few days Agent Du had reported to Dr. Director that he was feeling unwell and that he needed a day before he would be able to finish the detailed report for her. Taking another sip of coffee Betty considered just how bad the report could be if even Will Du had lost his stoic façade.

She also considered what it meant for her organization. After defeating the Lowardian invasion by using his Mystical Monkey Powers it had become obvious that Ronald was one of the most powerful people on earth. Was it any wonder then that her brother had wanted to try to harness those powers for WEE. And when he had failed Sheldon had tried to make sure that no one else could use Ronald, not Global Justice whom had hoped to recruit him, or Kim Possible, how all she wanted was to have him as a boyfriend.

That last part actually galled Betty on a personal level. Global Justice had always considered Ronald as a sort of strategic reserve, a hedge against either a Little Diablo event, or worse yet another Lowardian invasion. To have that asset taken away wasn't just a set back to Global Justice but felt like it was done to personally spite Betty. But now she had an opportunity to try to turn the tables on her dear brother.

Pushing the intercom button she once again buzzed her aide Agent Beck Ancall.

"Agent Ancall, send orders to be delivered to Agent Du upon his return. He is to organize a team of four agents who will conduct surveillance on Kim Possible, they will report as soon as she finds any new lead as to the current location of Ronald Stoppable. I will delegate all authority to intervene in the situation down to Agent Du. He is further authorized to reassign agents as need be to support his mission."

II.

Bonnie slammed the door to her bedroom shut as she bolted for her bathroom. She grabbed the container of foundation which she used to cover her scar and fumbled with it for several seconds out of frustration and eyes blurry with tears. Eventually the make up container slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor. Lowering her head as she began to sob at the situation; Bonnie soon heard a voice speak to her.

"You're a real piece of work."

"What do you mean by that?" Bonnie asked meekly in response to what she heard, or at least thought she had heard.

"Running off like some scared teen just because Ron asked you a question."

Bonnie lifted her head to see who was talking to her, but all she saw was her image in the mirror.

"I wasn't expecting to be asked about this." Bonnie said as she tried to justify her actions.

"Yeah, like that's some excuse." The image in the mirror taunted.

"Well it's not my fault." Bonnie rebutted.

"My how badly we want to deceive our selves tonight." The image answered in disdain, "This is entirely your fault."

Bonnie looked at the mirror image as if she didn't believe it.

"Fine then, let me spell it out for you. You invite a man in to your home as you try to help him get back on his feet, and despite your troubled history the both of you try to be civil to each other. All is going well till you forgot to put some make up on to cover your little scar."

"Oh so this is about my vanity then?" Bonnie huffed.

"No you loser. This is about you backsliding. You don't like to think about your scar so you cover it up, fine. But then you forget and someone asks you about it and you act all bitchy and go running off like the old queen bee Bonnie would."

The image of Bonnie in the mirror looked down at the real Bonnie before adding the coup de grace, "How do you think David or Jeanette would feel about how you acted tonight?"

"They would be disappointed in me." Bonnie answered as she shut her eyes tight as if trying to fend off an image from her mind.

"Yes they would be disappointed in what you did. But not in what you will do."

"What do you mean?" Bonnie asked as a couple of fresh tears fell down her cheeks.

"Grow up, be the new Bonnie. Pull yourself together and go out there and apologize and tell Ron about the scar." Then the image seemed to soften it's demeanor as it added one last bit of advice.

"Look, you want to be able to help Ron but he needs to open up to you. Well now's your chance to show him that you're willing to open up to him. Tell him about the scar, about how you got it and what it means to you."

Bonnie opened her eyes and looked at the mirror but all she saw was her own tear streaked face reflected back at her. _It wasn't Ron's fault that he noticed my scar when I forgot to cover it up, and he didn't deserve the way I responded to him_ she thought. Instead of doing the adult thing and telling him about it, or even just the polite thing and tell him that she would rather not talk about it she had fallen back to her old ways.

_No! _She thought, _I will be better than this. I will pull myself together and go talk to Ron. David is right, the right thing to do is always the best thing._

Her mind made up Bonnie splashed some cold water on her face and pulled herself together.

III.

Twenty minutes after her little blow out with Ron, Bonnie emerged from her room looking much calmer than before and made her way to the dinning room. But just because she was determined didn't mean that she was confident. At first she didn't say a word but instead just sat down at the dining table and poked at her now cold food. After a couple of minutes of this she got up and placed her dinner in the microwave. As the modern home appliance did its thing she decided to try and talk to Ron. Turning to face the man she saw that he had his back to her as he was finishing cleaning up the kitchen.

"Ron. I want to apologize for snapping at you earlier." She said softly.

"It's ok, like I said I don't expect the best from people any more." Ron answered flatly.

Bonnie had to admit that statement hurt, mostly because it meant that he still saw Bonnie for how she had behaved in the past. She had been trying to show him the Bonnie of now, the Bonnie that she showed the world. That was the Bonnie she wanted to be in the future.

"And I know given our history you don't expect the best from me." Bonnie added sadly, "But things change Ronald. People change. I want to show you that I've changed too."

Ron turned around and looked at the woman with a skeptical look on his face. After a moment he finally said, "Your food's getting cold."

Bonnie had not even noticed that the microwave had finished reheating her dinner, the dinner that Ron had made for her to say thank you for the hair cut she had given him. Things had been going pretty smoothly since Bonnie had brought Ron in to her home, and now things seemed to be falling apart.

Taking her plate of food to the table Bonnie sat both it and herself down and decided to live up to her motto that the right thing to do is always the best thing to do. And right now that meant being honest to Ronald in order to show that she had changed. She knew from experience that if the person you were trying to help didn't believe in you, then there was no way they were going to accept your help.

"Ron, I am sorry about how I snapped at you. You don't deserve to be treated like that, and frankly I never should have treated you like that in the past."

Ron sort of chuckled at Bonnie's lament.

"You know, I was wondering when the old queen bee Bonnie would show up, and when you snapped at me, I thought there she was. And it actually didn't bother me that much. It was something familiar, from my past, before my life fell apart, just the "old Bonnie" mocking me for my sorry state, reminding me of my place in the food chain and that I'll never go anywhere in life.

"I don't mean to sound ungrateful for what you've done for me over the past few days, its more charity than I've had in a long time. But I just keep waiting for you to tell me that you were right all along and that I'm just a loser who was never good enough and I'm just a failure." Ron hung his head down in defeat at the last part of his statement.

Bonnie sat there for a moment as she digested what he had just said. Setting down her fork she looked at the man across from her, a broken man who deserved a straight and honest answer.

"No Ron, I'm not going to mock you for living on the streets. Whatever befell you must have been something really bad, maybe from one of your missions, I don't know. But whatever the cause was, I can see that you could use a helping hand."

Bonnie took a breath to gather her thoughts before she continued, "Honestly, I had to learn that myself, that just because a person stumbles doesn't mean they aren't deserving of a helping hand, or that there are no hands out there willing to help. I learned that the hard way.

"But to answer your question, I got the scar on my face from an auto accident. The accident was, is, a painful and traumatic experience for me, and every time I see this scar it reminds me of it, and what I lost in it. That's why I always cover it up, not out of some sort of vanity or fear that it ruins my looks, but because of what it reminds me of."

When Bonnie had stopped speaking Ron lifted his head to look at her. He could see that his former classmate had a far off look on her face, that her eyes were not seeing the dinning room or kitchen but instead saw something else. They weren't just seeing the tears she was shedding, but seeing something from her past. Then, still with a far off look, Bonnie added,

"So Ronald, you are not a loser, you weren't then, and you aren't now. As bad as I feel for how I treated you in the past, I would feel even worse if I can't help you now."

IV.

"Have you gentlemen seen this man? He's wanted for questioning." A stern looking man in what could be called an aggressive law enforcement uniform asked as he held up a picture of Ron Stoppable.

Stroking his beard in thought Adam, or Grizzly Adams to his friends, looked at the picture for a moment as if studying it before speaking.

"No son, can't say as he looks familiar. Have you seen him Tinfoil Kevin?"

The man known as Tinfoil Kevin sat there with his colander covered in aluminum foil on top of his head.

"Why don't you just track him with the chemicals they put in us. Isn't that what the Illuminate do?"

The stern looking man knew that he wasn't going to get any where by trying to talk to a nut case like this guy. Putting the picture back in his breast pocket he stood up and reminded the men that there was a reward associated with finding the man.

Kevin and Adam waited several minutes to make sure that the man that they weren't entirely convinced was a legitimate police officer had left before speaking.

"Looks like the fuzz is still after Ron." Kevin said.

"Yeah I don't know what the kid did, but it's got to be more than just that one cop that he knocked out in the park. This is the third time someone has come by asking for him."

Meanwhile, up in Clarence's office, he was considering the very same facts. The first group of law enforcement officers to come asking about Ron had been the local cops. Then a bit later came some suits who stated they were with Global Justice. Finally this last group, who claimed to be some sort of law enforcement group, although Clarence doubted it, had been asking about the blond haired man. Clarence had no idea what they all wanted with him, or what he had done, all he knew was that he hoped Bonnie wasn't in over her head. Either way he would give Bonnie a call and let her know.


	8. Chapter 8

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 8

I.

The next day Ron awoke feeling physically better than he had in some time. But he still felt mentally troubled and emotionally unwell. These feelings were a serious obstacle to him finding any inner peace.

_Inner peace? Since when did I use that term?_ He wondered until he remembered that he had heard it from Bonnie.

After dinner the remainder of the night had been a bit awkward between the two. Ron for his part had taken Bonnie's apology at face value and had moved on with the night. While he considered himself fortunate that Bonnie was helping him out, he had no allusions that they were about to become friends.

Bonnie, on the other hand, for some reason seemed to almost be over compensating for her actions and had tried to apologize to Ron several more times during the night. It was almost as if she was afraid that she wasn't living up to someone's ideals and she was going to disappoint them. Ron had no idea who these unknown judges were, but they seemed to carry a lot of moral weight in the former queen bee's mind.

Looking at the clock on the nightstand Ron saw that it was still probably fifteen minutes until sunrise. Deciding to try out Bonnie's suggestion that watching a sun rise was a soothing and calming experience, Ron got dressed in yesterday's clothes and left his room. However, once he opened the door he saw small pile of neatly folder clothes laying on the floor just outside of the door.

"Unless the clothing gnomes have been visiting, then Bonnie must have done this for me." He muttered to himself, "When did she do this? I never heard her outside of my door, and where is she getting all these clothes?"

After putting the fresh pile of clothes on his bed, Ron made his way to the back porch and saw that Bonnie was already sitting out there in a chair waiting for the sun to come up. He gently opened the sliding door so as to not startle the woman.

"Hey." Ron said neutrally.

"Hey. Did you find the fresh clothes I left for you?"

"Yes, thank you." Ron said as he sat down in the patio furniture chair a few feet away from Bonnie.

"I thought you could use some clean clothes." She said as she continued to stare eastward.

"Not the first time that I've worn the same clothes for more than a couple of days. Still I appreciate the gesture."

Bonnie simply nodded her head in acknowledgement.

"I didn't hear you outside of my door depositing the clothes. When did you do that?"

"Earlier."

"Oh, ok. I'm curious why you have so many men's clothes on hand though."

"Don't worry about it." Bonnie said flatly.

Ron was slightly annoyed by Bonnie's tone and was about to ask again when Bonnie shushed him.

"The sun will be up in a couple of minutes. It's best to enjoy a sun rise in silence. The weather is supposed to cloudy for the next few days, so this is our only chance till then."

Ron decided to listen to his host and simply sat back in the chair and stared eastward himself. Soon the sky began to turn grey, and then a reddish hue, followed by an orange hue, as the sun crept above the horizon. While there had been a silence before, now that the sun was up Ron could hear the chirping of birds and the sounds of animals beginning to rustle about.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath feeling the cool, crisp air feel his lungs while the scents of nature filled his nose. Breathing through his mouth as he let all of the air out of his lungs, Ron found himself sliding out of his chair and assuming a half lotus meditative position. He maintained this position for several minutes until he heard Bonnie begin to rise from her chair.

Bonnie saw her companion open his eyes and glance at her.

"You don't have to get up on my account, I'm just going inside to start breakfast; you can stay here and meditate some more if you like." Bonnie said.

"It's been a while since I've meditated like this. Maybe I will." Ron answered as he closed his eyes and began to rhythmically breathe again.

II.

A short while later Ronald finished up his meditation and felt calmer and more centered than he had in months. Slowly stretching as he stood up, Ron made a mental note that he should meditate more often. Living on the streets didn't usually lend itself to achieving a meditative zen like state that helped to focus the mind and settle the nerves.

Opening the sliding patio door Ron was soon assaulted by the smell of breakfast and was set upon by a smiling Bonnie as she placed two cups of coffee on the table.

"Good you're done meditating; go wash up breakfast is ready."

Ron stood there momentarily dumbfounded by the scene. After a few seconds he had recovered enough to actually make his way to the bathroom to wash his hands. Turning the water on he leaned against the sink to support himself as he let out a long and heavy sigh.

The scene in the kitchen had been the very definitions of domestic bliss. There in the kitchen was an attractive and smiling woman cooking a delicious smelling breakfast in a warm and safe house. The scene had been enough that for a couple of seconds Ron almost believed that he too could have those things in life, almost.

III.

As the two unlikely roommates sat down for breakfast; Ron was surprised at how much more chipper Bonnie seemed to be compared to the previous night or even earlier before watching the sun rise.

"How's breakfast Ron?"

"Actually, it's really good." Ron answered.

"Not as good as you can do I'm sure. But this is a lot better than I used to be."

"When did you learn to cook?"

"I learned over the years; and I had some great family recipes handed down to me."

"You're lucky." Ron said wistfully.

"Yeah I am." Bonnie said although Ron missed the equally wistful look on her face, "But I had to rebuild my luck. Maybe we can rebuild yours too."

"I doubt that." Ron retorted as he took his empty plate to the sink to be washed.

"Trust me, everyone can rebuild their luck." Bonnie countered as she did the same.

"Here, let me clean up the kitchen since you made breakfast." Ron offered as he saw Bonnie begin to clear the table of the various condiments that had been set out for their meal.

"Ok, but on one condition."

"Adding conditions to someone's offer to clean the kitchen? Now that sounds like the old queen bee Bonnie I used to know." Ron teased.

"Hmmph, keep that up and I'll show you the old queen bee Bonnie." Bonnie said as she crossed her arms and leaned against the kitchen counter.

"Fine, I surrender." Ron said as he waved a white washcloth in the air before plunging it in to the dish water. "But you've been apologizing almost non stop since last night. Why is it such a big deal to you?"

Bonnie chewed on her bottom lip for a moment as she considered her answer. She needed to be honest with Ronald, and he deserved more of an answer than 'just cause'.

"It's a big deal to me not just for me, but because it was a promise I made to my family."

This caught Ron by surprise. Everything he recalled about the Rockwaller clan left him with the impression that they were stuck ups that looked down on everyone. And he expressed this opinion out loud despite what etiquette called for.

"Yeah I'm not surprised that you're surprised." Bonnie conceded, "But like I said, things change. I've tried hard to change too. I know I'm not perfect and that sometimes I do fall back in to old habits.

"But I want to be better, because at one time there were two people who cared about me enough to tolerate all of my short comings and to help me be that better person. So I made a promise to my family that I will always try to be that better person."

Bonnie then walked towards the kitchen sink so she was standing right next to Ronald.

"Ron, I know you have issues, and regrets about things. But don't let them define you. It's hard, but I know you can be better too. And I'm willing to help you to be that better person."

After this little heart to heart conversation between the blond and the brunette, they both individually decided that a little space would be a good thing. Ron decided to retreat to the guest room he was staying in for a bit of mediation that he hoped focus his thoughts as well settle his emotions. Like wise Bonnie retreated in to her home office to do some work, and to put some space between the former classmates and current roommates.

IV.

Solitude can drive a person crazy in large doses, but in small doses it can put things in to perspective, and emotions in check, which is what Ron and Bonnie both wanted. Thus when they meet up again for lunch it was a much less awkward and more relaxed affair than breakfast had been as the two people each made a conscious decision to try and be a better person.

After lunch Bonnie informed Ron that she had received a call from Clarence asking if she could come to Better Days for a bit so he could discuss a couple of things with her. As Bonnie was getting ready to leave she asked a favor of Ron.

"Ron, can you please do me a favor while I'm gone?"

"Sure Bonnie, what is it?"

"I'm expecting a package to be delivered this afternoon, it's about two feet by three feet, and could you accept it for me?"

"No problem milady." Ron said with a slight bow.

"No need for formal titles, queen bee will do." Bonnie said with a smirk as she headed out the door smiling. Ron may not have known it, but his little touch of silliness the sort of "getting better" that Bonnie had spoken of when she offered to help him be a better person. Hoping in to her car Bonnie checked that her make up was adequately concealing the scar on her face. Yes she had been honest about the scar with Ron and had even forgone covering it while she was home, but that didn't mean she was willing to share it with the rest of the world.

After Bonnie had left Ron sat down on the living room couch and began to flip through the TV channels. Finally he came across a professional wrestling documentary of the rivalry between King Pain and Steel Toe. Letting the mindless entertainment wash over him Ron settled back in to a state of relaxed bliss the likes he couldn't even remember when he had last enjoyed. Here he was in a warm, dry, safe place, with plenty of good food, and someone who had seen some of his darker moments but didn't seem to be scared off by them. An unforced smile slowly crept across Ron's face as this line of thought passed through his mind.

Half an hour later the door bell rang and Ron, thinking it was the package that Bonnie had been waiting for, went to answer it. But when Ron opened the door he was surprised to see a boy around the age of twelve standing there.

"Um hi, I'm Austin. Um, who are you?"

Ron hesitated for a moment before answering.

"Hi Austin, I'm Ron."

"Oh. Mmm, is Ms. Bonnie here?"

"No Bonnie isn't here right now, she asked me to accept a package for her."

"OK then." The boy said as he proceeded to pick up a box that had been leaning against the side of the house. The box looked to be two feet wide by three feet tall, but wasn't very heavy.

"Here, this came for Ms. Bonnie, but it was just sitting here so she probably didn't know that it had arrived."

"No she didn't know it was already here. Thank you Austin." Ron said as he accepted the box.

"I haven't seen you before. Are you Ms. Bonnie's new boyfriend?" Austin asked in that blunt, sometimes tactless, but brutally honest way that kids often do.

Ron actually looked a little embarrassed by the question.

"Umm, no we aren't dating or anything. I happen to know her from high school."

"Oh, well ok then tell Ms. Bonnie I said hi."

Austin walked way from the door and headed home while leaving behind a bemused Ron. Once the young boy had entered his house his mother asked if Bonnie had been able to get her package.

"No mom, she wasn't home. But I gave it to the guy there."

"There was a guy there?" Austin's mother asked.

"Yeah," Austin answered as he began to raid the fridge, "He said his name is Ron and that he's not Bonnie's boyfriend but that she asked him accept the package for him."

"Hmm, I didn't know Bonnie was seeing anyone. That will make for some interesting gossip."

V.

"Hey there girl, haven't seen you in a few days." Laura said as she greeted her friend at the Better Days homeless shelter.

"Been busy."

"I bet. You do look happy though." Then in a more conspiratorial manner she whispered, "So how are you enjoying have a man around the house again?"

"Not like that Laura. Geez."

"Well you said you were busy."

"Yes, busy helping him to get back on his feet as well as run a home business. What did you think I meant."

Laura just smiled.

"You know what, don't even say anything." Bonnie said with equal parts sternness and humor, "I only came here because Clarence asked me to come in so he could talk to me about a couple of things."

"Alright then I'll stop teasing you. But hey if you can't pick on your friends then who can you pick on?"

Bonnie simply rolled her eyes as she parted company with her friend and made her way to Clarence's office. Once there she knocked on the door to let him know she was there.

"Hi Bonnie, haven't seen you in a few days. I assume things are going well with your projects?"

"Yeah I've made some progress on new press releases we can use and I think I can bat my eyes and maybe show a little cleavage and get us a discount at that new print shop in town if we need to make fliers again."

Clarence could help but to let out a full belly laugh at the answer.

"It's official, you've been hanging out with Laura too much." He said through several chuckles. "But I also wanted to talk to you about your special project, the one named Ron."

"Oh, well that's going good too."

"Look Bonnie, I'm going to be honest with you. There have been several LEO types in here asking about your friend. I don't know what they want or what he did, but I just have a bad feeling about this. So please be careful ok?"

VI.

Master Sensei sat stroking his beard in thought as he read over the report in front of him. Soon his attention was pulled by the arrival of Yori.

"You wanted to see me master."

Master Sensei nodded his head in acknowledgement.

"Yori, you know that the lotus blade is a powerful weapon that only responds to those that it deems worthy of it."

The female ninja nodded in understanding.

"And that Stoppablesan was the one that the lotus blade had found worthy."

"Hai. It was quite a shock when the blade decided to return to our care in Yamanouchi."

"As you doubtlessly know this occurred not long after the reported disappearance of Stoppablesan."

Again Yori simply nodded her head. Although the ninja knew that Ron and Kim had become a couple, it had still hurt to learn of the mysterious disappearance of Ron and his continued absence over the years. When the lotus blade had returned to Yamanouchi it was assumed that the worst had come pass.

"Yori, over the past few days I have sensed a change in the lotus blade, as if it is awakening from a slumber." Sensei said interrupting Yori's thoughts.

"Could Stoppablesan still be alive?" Yori asked hopefully.

Despite her training Sensei could see the glimmer of hope in the woman at the possibility that Ron was still alive. He knew that the two had been friends, but he also knew of her secret love for the blond man.

"I do not know Yori, but we must find out. In order to do so I will send you to America to ascertain if Stoppablesan is in fact alive and able to reclaim his title of the chosen one."

"How shall I do that Sensei?"

The old man smiled in that way that parents do when they are three steps ahead of their children.

"I have a well placed source that informs me that certain leads are coming to light about the location of Ronald. They suggest that the best way to find Ronald is to follow Kimberly."

Yori considered what her sensei had told her and guessed that his source was likely with in Global Justice. But for now that didn't matter, what mattered was that she be able to help to find Ronald Stoppable.

"Hai." Yori said with a bow as she left to make her preparations.


	9. Chapter 9

Kim Possible: By Bon's Early Light

Chapter 9

I.

Kim was looking through the slide show presentation she planned on using at the speech she was scheduled to deliver at an elementary school in a few days. While Kim sometimes chaffed at having to deliver these motivational speeches, often to school aged kids, she had to admit that it was an easy way to try to stay in the public's good graces. Which was a good thing when even people like Shego, now reformed and doing occasional free lance work for Global Justice, commented that Kim had become a tad excessive in her use of violence over the past few years.

Taking a sip of water, Kim had reluctantly listened to Joss suggestion to dry out for a few days, she continued to peruse through the pictures deciding which ones she wanted to use. Not all of the various pictures that were in the presentation were used for every presentation that she gave. Most of the pictures were of either of her younger years, which included action shots, publicity shots, and award shots, while others included other people, such as her cousin Joss or her friend Wade. Some of them included her heart and soul, Ron. Those pictures were always the hardest to talk about.

Advancing to the next slide there was a picture of Kim in Mexico standing next to a burning car. Kim remembered that particular picture and the mission it came from. She had been following up on a lead to Ron's where abouts and the information had lead to a human smuggling operation on the US and Mexican border. By the time Kim was done with the mission a multi million dollar home, owned by a cartel member, had been burnt to the ground, several dozen vehicles had been wrecked, and a dozen men hospitalized for injuries, some of them serious.

News of the event, along with a couple of pictures of Kim at the scene, had gotten out, and neither the press nor the public had been very kind about their feelings about the incident. After that it had been several weeks before Kim received another hit on her website asking for help. But by then she had already started taking on paying jobs more and more so she could continue to fund her search for Ron.

Letting out a sigh, Kim laid back in her bed and rested her head against the pillows. She closed and gently rubbed her weary eyes as she tried to mentally steel herself to finish her task. Kim wasn't aware of when she had fallen asleep until the former hero became aware that she was dreaming about the last time that she had meet the Stoppable family.

It had been a few months since Ron's disappearance and Kim had just returned from following a possible lead about Ron. The lead had been a bust and she still had no new information about Ron. For the teen hero the hardest moment she ever had to face came that afternoon as she sat in a nice chair looking at the three people who she had considered part of her family and she considered how she was going to tell them the news.

Hana spoke up first breaking the tension.

"Where Ron?" The little Asian girl asked as she walked up to Kim.

Kim looked down at the little girl whom she had in some ways begun to regard as a sister and told her the truth.

"I don't know Hana. I can't find him."

"He play hide and seek?" She asked.

"He might be." Kim answered.

This seemed to placate the little girl as she wondered away and started looking in, around, and under things while call Ron's name. As Hana left the room Mrs. Stoppable spoke next.

"What do you mean you don't know where he is?" She asked sternly.

"I'm sorry Barbra, but we haven't had any luck finding any clues about Ron."

"That's Mrs. Stoppable."

This statement hit Kim like a slap to the face. After she and Ron had started going to college together as a couple; the Stoppable matriarchy had told Kim that it was alright to call her Barbra. Apparently she was now revoking that privilege.

"I'm sorry but we are all doing our best to…"

"We've heard the excuses several times now Kim, both from you and from Global Justice." Donald Stoppable said, "I think it would be better if you don't come by and get ours, and especially Hana's, hopes up until you do find out something about Ron."

If the first comment had felt like a slap, then this one felt like a punch to the gut.

"Donald dear you're being to nice to the girl. She's the one that dragged Ron all over the world fighting villains, and then he got him mixed up with that Global Justice organization." Barbra said with a glance towards her husband.

She then turned her attention back towards Kim.

"Frankly Kim, we don't know what happened to Ron, but my mother's intuition tells me he was probably kidnapped, and that it probably has something to do with all those villains you fought over the years who are now your enemies. If Ron hadn't followed you in your save the world footsteps then they would never have even known he existed and he would be here now. So yes Kim I don't know who kidnapped Ronald, but I blame you for it happening."

Mrs. Stoppable then hardened her glare towards Kim.

"I don't want to see you here any more, and I don't want to see you near Hana. If I do see you trying to interact with her I will call the police and report an attempted kidnapping. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes." Was all Kim managed to get out as her heart felt as though a knife had been plunged through it. The woman's anger over the disappearance of her son as well as Kim's failure to find him during the past several months was obvious as she was lashing out at the only target she had, Kim.

"Why don't I see you to the door Kimberly?" Donald suggested diplomatically.

Kim simply nodded as she was escorted out of the Stoppable's house. Just before Kim stepped through the front door Mr. Stoppable spoke one more time.

"Kimberly, I know you are trying to find Ron. I don't blame you for his disappearance like Barbra does, but I do think that it would be a good idea if we severed ties until Ronald is found. That is nothing against you but something I need to do for my family, do you understand?"

Again Kim could only nod her head as she was unable to find the courage to speak.

"Ok then. Goodnight Kimberly, hopefully the next time we meet it will be with Ronald."

Shell shocked at how badly the meeting with the Stoppables had turned out, Kim practically stagger down the sidewalk as she made her way back to her parent's house. Once she let her self in Kim ignored talking to her family and went to the liquor cabinet and poured herself a drink. That had been the first night that twenty year old Kim Possible had ever gotten drunk.

II.

Meanwhile in the town of Westernville, as a cold rain fell, a different and even more disturbing dream was being had by a blond man.

"Give him 10ccs of the stuff. That should be sufficient to get the subject riled up." An unseen voice said calmly.

"Are you sure? It might kill him." Another voice asked.

"If the drugs don't kill him then the test subject will. Besides, we have more where he came from." The first voice said, its owner completely unconcerned with the value of a man's life.

Ronald watched as the two unknown men injected something in to a man that was strapped to a table just like he was. After a moment the man began to twitch, then struggle, then yell as if in a blind rage.

"Test subject two is sufficiently agitated. Let's move to the control room in order to observe the rest of the experiment." The first man stated with calmness and detachment.

Shortly after leaving the room the two men, scientist to some, monsters to others, pressed a few buttons from the safety of their control room. Soon the man who had received the injection that was referred to as "test subject two" was remotely released from his restraints. Feeling that he was free the highly agitated man leapt from the table and his wild eyes began to scan the room. After a moment his gaze fell on a still restrained Ronald and began to menacingly approach the man helpless man.

At the last second the restraints holding Ronald in place were released and he just managed to avoid being on the receiving end of the man's attack. Backing away from the man who now appeared to be in the midst of a berserker rage Ronald hoped to avoid the attacks long enough for the man to either tire out or the drugs to wear off.

"That won't work." The calm detached voice said from across a speaker, "Either you fight or you die."

Listening to the man's words had distracted Ron just long enough that the berserker was able to land several hits on to him. Sensing that the voice was probably right Ron assumed a defensive stance and began to fight his opponent. The next several minutes were a blur in Ronald's mind and the next conscious thought he was aware of was him with both of his hands tightly wrapped around the other man's neck.

"I didn't want to, I didn't want to, I didn't want to…" Ronald kept saying over and over again as tears were streaming down his checks and fell on to the body beneath him.

Ron bolted up right in bed with a shriek as the disturbing images began to recede from his mind. Looking around and not recognizing the unfamiliar surroundings or remembering even arriving there he began to panic. Jumping out bed he began to frantically look for both any signs of danger as well as a way out.

The shouting and general ruckus that Ron was making while in his disoriented state were enough to awaken Bonnie and cause her to rise out of bed to investigate. Slipping on a bath robe she made sure that she was prepared appropriately for the situation.

Ronald had gotten half way dressed in his blind rush to get out of the room. He had put on a pair of pants, one sock, and a shirt that was draped across his torso at an angle with one arm through the sleeve while the other sleeve was wadded up on his shoulder. That was when he heard a knock on the door to the room he had .

"Ron, are you ok?"

"Leave me alone!" Ron shouted.

"It's ok Ron. You're safe here." Bonnie reassured gently.

"I said leave me alone!"

"Ron, it's me Bonnie…"

The door to the guest bedroom flew open taking Bonnie by surprise as a highly agitated Ron came through the door.

"Keep away, I don't want to have to hurt you." Ron threatened.

Seeing the crazed look on Ron's face, Bonnie slowly raised her hands up as if to show that she was not any sort of threat and took a small step back.

"Where am I? Where did you take me?!" Ron shouted accusingly at Bonnie.

Bonnie stepped back again as she attempted to placate the agitated man, "Your at my house remember? I didn't kidnap you."

"I don't believe you." Ron shouted as he stared at the woman while slowly side stepping to get past her. After several steps Ron decided that the woman in front of him wasn't a threat and he rushed past her and towards a door that he assumed would allow him to escape. Reaching his hoped for exit Ron attempted to open the door but it remained locked and closed.

"Let me out" He shouted.

"Ron, it's freezing out there…"

"NO! You can't keep me here. I've got to escape, got to escape!" Ron pleaded as he began to bang on the door, "Got to get away, got to get away. Don't hurt me, don't hurt me. Keep from getting hurt, got to get away, get away get away."

Bonnie was shocked by Ron's actions. Something was wrong, very wrong, for the man to be acting so terrified, and so desperate to try to leave. For a moment Bonnie considered just opening the door. But a cold snap had hit the area and it was below freezing outside tonight, she couldn't let him out of the house no matter how much he wanted. Instead she was going to have to try to calm Ron down and try to help him work though his demons.

"Ron, it's ok. I'm not going to hurt you." Bonnie said as she held up her empty hands.

"Lies! Don't lie to me!" Ron shouted as he glared at Bonnie.

"It's true Ron. I just want to talk."

"Just leave me alone." Ron protested as he began to violently struggle with the door handle.

"Ron please calm down before you hurt yourself."

The blond haired man then turned to face Bonnie as if he had a thought. "Keys. Give me the keys to the door."

"I don't have any keys…"

"Stop lying to me!" Ron shouted as he began to approach Bonnie.

Bonnie slowly and cautiously began to back up while slowly lowering her hands. "I don't want to hurt you Ron, but you need to calm down."

"You can't tell me what to do. Now give me the keys so I can leave!" Ron shouted as he lunged towards Bonnie.

However, Bonnie anticipated that something like that would happen. As Ron continued to approach the former cheerleader she had deftly moved her right hand down to the pocket of her robe and pulled out her trusty taser. In a matter of seconds the prongs of the device made contact with Ronald's skin and had delivered enough voltage to overwhelm his nervous system and cause the man to collapse unconscious.

Bonnie stood over the man now sprawled out on the floor and watched him for several seconds to make sure he wasn't going to move. Seeing that he was no longer a threat she sat the taser aside and knelt down next to the former cheer mascot and rolled him over to check to make sure he was still breathing. Seeing that he appeared to be physically ok, Bonnie gently lifted his head and laid it in her lap. She then gently stroked back the hair that had fallen over his eyes as she examined his face.

"What happened to you Ronald? Why are you so traumatized?" She asked in a soft, sad voice.


End file.
